Unlurker

'You Can See Everything' Review: Nathan Fielder's Doc About Elizabeth Holmes (variety.com)

I watched the entire trailer fully believing that Nathan Fielder had managed to find the most unhinged uncanny look-alike actress to play Elizabeth Holmes. This trailer was so good that I would have been fully prepared to watch a 2 hour dramatised mockumentary about Theranos. Finding out that this was really Elizabeth Holmes was a huge shock

> But the more Holmes talks to Fielder, the more he teases out her unhinged rationale, which is: The device works fine! We just had to figure out that pesky chemistry stuff! The strange thing is that Holmes has such a corporate mindset that she treats the chemistry stuff…that hadn’t been invented yet…as just another glitchy small problem that could easily be solved The difference between science and engineering right there...

You mean marketing and engineering.

Who’s “Bobby” mentioned in the article? Did the writer just mix up Billy Evans with Bobby?

"Writer" probably used AI and didn't even read the output.

It does seem that way, half-way through they switch from "Billy" to "Bobby"

Live map of public transport in Belgium (openbaarvervoerbelgie.be)

[delayed]

I've first seen this in Moscow around 2018 (in Google Maps) and then in Ivano-Frankovsk in 2021 (some local custom app). I think such live maps are the best use of public funds one could imagine.

I dunno, I think there's one better use and that's funding a federated framework for this so any transport network can just plug into the system as a source and any client can plug in as a consumer.

Similar map for the Netherlands: http://ovzoeker.nl/

Similar real time traffic map for Switzerland < https://maps.trafimage.ch/ch.sbb.netzkarte?baselayers=ch.sbb.netzkarte,ch.sbb.netzkarte.dark,ch.sbb.netzkarte.luftbild.group,ch.sbb.netzkarte.landeskarte,ch.sbb.netzkarte.landeskarte.grau&layers=ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-gondola,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-funicular,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-ferry,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-bus,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-tram,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-nv,ch.sbb.puenktlichkeit-fv,ch.sbb.geschosse2D&lang=en&x=1071055.28&y=6004765.93&z=12.05 >

Would be perfect post end of January for next FOSDEM.

Really nice! The place names are a little hard to read especially in dark mode, other than that great job! Thanks for sharing!

Awesome! Looking at the metro stop near me here in Brussels, the trains seemed stuck for a while at the station. Not impossible this was just real :) Great way to admire the density and connectivity of our public transport!!

Great companion to https://irail.be , a minimalist counterpart to this site, also based on open data.

I just figured out that on Mallorca, the busses are shown like that on Google Maps. Which to me was mind blowing. I had never seen it, it's so convenient.

Programming is Art (orchidfiles.com)

Most solutioning is art, given that you should have more than one way to reach the target state and target state itself is negotiable and non-concrete. When there are multiple options you are forced to analyze between them, sometimes you have a preferred option if the analysis has been done before. Your choices while solutioning will reflect your experience and how you think. In short, it definitely reflects 'you'. You make similar kind of choices while programming as well. Hence, programming is definitely an art since there are many ways something can be implemented, almost to the level that you can recognize who has written the code by seeing the code itself. Most such programmers don't even have the visibility to higher level goals of the org they are working in, I used to be in this group earlier. I remember it used to be a 'problem' for a lot of senior developers, who used to ask for consistency in how code is written, like spacing between keywords, indentation, start/end of parenthesis, naming convention, etc. Wondering if they'll settle for more 'Soul' in the code now :). Or maybe, they have permanently shifted to the other groups now - where only the output matters.

It's still too early to say what will the outlook be like in the next ten years, wrt to AI, but one thing I am perfectly sure of is: AI will always produce 'errors' due to the fundamental fact that it's heuristics-based. Maybe fewer and fewer, but the mistakes will never be totally eliminated. This is why those wanting to learn how to write software shouldn't get discouraged that 'Oh, AI will replace human programmers'.

So humans never make errors? The very same thing that allows humans to make errors, find errors, learn from it, fix it...AI can/will do too. Then what? You lack imagination.

There's a class of programming/configuration tasks where I specifically use AI because it makes less errors than I do.

I fail to see why this is a good argument against AI replacing humans, given that humans also produce errors.

I am (still) not a proponent for AI, however I hope AI might do to programming what the camera did to painting, and I hope that will be a good thing. What we understand as painting today is very different then what painting meant pre-camera. Now it is mostly a leisure activity and creative outlet. Where back in the day it was a serious occupation for capturing reality, and therefore creativity was taking second stage. I hope that coding will go that way and even though I might lose my current occupation. I feel like that might be what is needed to get out of the stagnation of current day software development (compared to early computer history). Take the money out of coding, bring the creativity in, take out the investors and keep the enthusiasts. I think that might be good for the activity that we call programming. Also "software engineering" involves vastly more then programming or coding, so I doubt software engineering will disappear.

Yes, Silicon Valley became Wall Street and that basically ruined it completely. Soon as the term brogrammer was coined it was over.

I read your comment first, and thought it was a bit uncharitable to the author. But then looking through their social media presence. No sign of commentary before late 2025. Looking at the wayback machine, the site was first published in January 2026 with no blog. Then in Feb, the site was updated with a blog archive, including posts from 2025, before the site's blog functionality was active. The blog post ends: >I don’t use AI when writing. It produces soulless, bland text. AI slop that no one wants to read But if you look back through earlier essays you see stuff like this: >Technology evolves. Complacency endures. Building something means taking responsibility for its survival. It’s respect for time that can never be regained Which has all of the hallmarks of a Claude generated essay (or just a human failing the Turing test).

This author made this post to counter his other point of view on "Why do developers write continuation code by hand?" I've been suspicious of this for about a year now.

> I like it when new ideas for the text come to me as I’m writing. The writing process itself — the thinking that goes on in the moment — is important to me, not just the result. This. Applies to me while writing text, writing code and writing data analyses.

Exactly this. You always have to choose what to leave in, what to take out. "Ways to do it" suggest themselves, and you weigh them, "is it the best fit for this project". A lot of what's left out evaporates into the void, but often enough you stumble onto one of these doesn't-fits that's nonetheless a keeper. You know it'll be useful somewhere else, or as the heart of something new. Sure, you create the product, but it's these other by-the-way ideas that keep one coming back.

It won't stop people from enjoying playing Go, though

There is one thing that upsets many people though... if err != nil { return nil, err }

Labels rarely fit well. We can't even agree on the definition of "art". I would prefer to say "fascination", because for some people, writing code is their fascination. Is it art if only they would label it so? Because I'm pretty sure that if a "code artist" showed their code to 10 other experienced developers, not only would some of the others not consider it art, but likely some of the others would consider it low quality. Are code golfers artists? Fetishists? What if they believe theirs is the only way - the true artistry of coding? Would all of our single-responsibility, immutable core/imperative shell hybrid-functional code be discounted as garbage? (Not poking at the code golfers; I think they do it for the challenge, not because they believe that is how code should be written; but it illustrates an extreme.) For most people, I think it's fair to say they write code because they are trying to make something happen. If their code runs without errors, in the necessary time, and without exhausting the computer's memory, then I believe most would consider that code "good": it does the job. Are they working with others? Will others need to read it? If so, perhaps the most artistic code is not the best code to write. I know many professionals dislike working with the code artist who makes code that is unreadable to all but the most skilled developers, because it causes friction and leads to misunderstandings and bugs. Now we have reached the point where general purpose code is so easily and correctly built by our AI tools that there is no practical point to writing it ourselves. Are the AI-naysayers, the purists, writing their own libraries? Are they building everything from scratch? If not, they are not the true code artists. They have made practical concessions. They just haven't graduated to the realization that code is a commodity. I suspect the people most against use of AI for building are the people who lack the creativity - the idea sources - and live just to translate requirements into code. They will gradually find fewer opportunities, and this threat is what probably makes them get emotional when looking at AI-built products.

You start off this comment by saying "labels rarely fit well" and end it by labeling most critics of AI as uncreative cowards and hypocrites, implying that the only true artists are the ones using AI like yourself. My brother in Christ you vibe-code games that are simpler than flash games from the 90s. You are not superior to people who still care to put in the time and effort.

If you don't know what a soul is, and you think it's something people just make up, then you are missing out on the experience of being human and you have a bigger problem than not being able to understand what art is.

So you know what a soul is? Please enlighten

So whales do not have a soul? Only humans do have one? What about our ancestors? Did the homo erectus have a soul? What about big apes, did they? I don't need "soul" concept to describe the human experience, and if you use it to describe technology, it only makes things more confusing. It only ends up as an attempt to state that some things are not "good" because they don't match your own vague concept of what is good or bad, without explaining why nor what this is.

Is it this fuzzy blob of ineffable experiences, aesthetics, qualia, self-reference, dualism, spirituality and other things? I don't need to reject all this to notice that its fuzziness makes it impossible to operationalize.

It's supposed to be experienced, not 'operationalized.'

A banana and duct tape can be just a snack and a tool for fixing a leak.

Or .. art. https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/art/features/banana-duct-tape-artwork-maurizio-cattelan-artist-banksy-shredded-painting-a9244311.html

It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign from Meta (theguardian.com)

It wont get better with a replacement. Look at all the other big tech companies, it only gets worse. Split it up as with AT&T Bell or Standard Oil, or stop complaining.

Rather than investigate all the things where investigative journalism could potentially make a difference to real human beings' lives, the Guardian has chosen to pursue a plea for the majority owner of Meta's voting shares (61%) to step down from his position of power. Let us politely ask Sisyphus to stop pushing the boulder instead.

They didn't do this instead of that.

Has there ever be a social media plattform that cheered you on for Self-Improvement? DuoLingo comes to mind or some DIY project- like building a piece of furniture? Just not rewarding flexing, but creating and world improving?

Instructables.com used to be very much like this. The community was built around people posting guides for building DIY projects, with some of them being extremely impressive and creative. I just took a look, and it appears to have changed now though. At least, from the logged out perspective.

LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices (notebookcheck.net)

When the first TV ships with a battery to keep running while unplugged, I'm dusting off my soldering iron and my digital circuits handbook.

Oh Simon? Simon? Wherefore art thou Simon? I thought every microphone controversy was an Unproven Conspiracy Theory™... ( https://simonwillison.net/tags/microphone-ads-conspiracy )

I'm practically certain that there was no ill-intent by LG when conceiving this feature. It was most likely just a convenience thing. But I am also practically certain, that, eventually, any pile of data will attract ideas you do not want attracted.

This sort of blanket data collection needs to be made illegal in every single jurisdiction, and have _very_ robust penalties for anyone found in breach of them.

Makes me glad I bought a Sony TV which has the microphone on the remote - and is compatible with older remotes without a microphone, so the new remote with its microphone and sponsored streaming service buttons gathers dust (without batteries inserted) while I use an old remote.

I've bought an LG Smart TV 5 years ago, read t&c where I was supposed to grant them any data they wanted, decided to disagree and kept all network functions disabled. I was ridiculed by my friends for that. At some point, I thought - maybe I'm really crazy to do so? Who am I, a caveman, a luddite? Oh well, I'm not. Not a bad tv though, many HDMI ports!

This. Why would you even connect TV to the network? It is well known for like 5 years. Smsrt TVs go through your movies library, and upload screenshots and filenames to internet. Some will start showing ads after firmware upgrade.

I could buy a tv in late 2014 and happened to be the last batch of bravia tvs pre android tv. Back then I was kind of bummed out that just a few weeks after that they announced the first tvs with android tv and now i was hooked with a smart-but-not-that-smart tv with a bunch of crappy ads, an unusable web browser and a non-customizable os. But they stopped updating it years ago, none of its apps work anymore and the only "smart" feature that still works is screen mirroring feature. The tv part itself still works great. Not a 4k oled 120Hz shiny impressive thing but the image quality is still great. What I thought was an unlucky adquisition back then turned out to be a pretty good one.

Apps, browsers and "smart" features are disposable software, but a good panel can remain useful for a decade. Makes you wish manufacturers treated the smart layer as optional from the start.

This is automatic liability in California and the EU, correct? Does Illinois consider one’s voice pattern to be a biometric? If so, there, too.

I absolutely loathe my LG smart TV. Just switching to another input requires 3 button press. I hope someone uses their free time to hack the OS and offer a clean and simple interface to make it a “dumb” TV.

You're not wrong, but you could ask your favorite LLM to interact with the LG API's to switch the input for you. At least for my case, it was ~10 minutes of work to develop a small tray app that looks for a specific USB device and switches the TV input if it gets inserted. I don't really even touch the remote anymore

I know its important to put things down to coincidence whenever possible, but a very expensive Bang OLufsen ( I think they use LG ) TV would turn itself off at "the" most interesting split second moments during gameplay , to the point where I thought "if I am being pranked by a friend, does this TV even stream its contents?". Much to my surprise I found out that many modern TVs do in fact come with dev mode that allow full remote streaming. Safe to say I turned off all the "allow metrics and market/dev modes" and have been happier since.

I'm inclined to believe the shutdowns were a bug rather than an extremely patient friend waiting for the perfect gameplay moment. But modern TVs having enough remote-management machinery that the prank theory isn't immediately absurd is not exactly reassuring.

Most tvs now come with auto off kou have to cancel with a button press, prob just that. Normally they show a warning, but i just got a new tcl, and it’s warning is very short leading to shutdown if you don’t pause quick enough to reset it

That did happen a few times , but Im telling you bro that TV restarted a couple times just as I was about to clutch, like the same second i was about to press a trigger in an otherwise boring 25 minute round more than once, but yes as I mentioned earlier it could be related to other tech aspects.

Did it ever turn itself off after you made those settings changes?

Im not here to feed conspiracy theories and paranoia, its most likely a coincidence, and tied to having "excess metrics and advanced features that indirectly cause a kernel panic that turns the tv off". But yes, after turning a bunch of unnecessary default options off, my TV never restarted again just as I was making a clutch moment. So in summary - remember it could just be related to high action moment fps drain, heat, high intensity stuff making the nintendo switch2 compatibility cause a kernel affected restart etc etc etc ( which is documented via the HDMI protocols ) which make it SEEM like something weird is up, but it turns out its a related thing thats not that sus.

Just don't buy a smart TV. Buy a good "dumb" TV (or just get a good large monitor), then hook it up to a set top box (with TV capabilities as needed).

"Just a good large monitor" costs a fortune. If anyone could recommend any dumb TV with good panels in EU, you're more than welcome.

If you want a good panel, you're going to have to buy a smart TV. Just don't ever let it connect to the internet.

notebookcheck.net: > We value your privacy Shares my browsing info with 1745 "partners" with no clear way to opt out (which ought to be opt-in by the way to be compliant with ePrivacy and GDPR).

"We value your privacy" → "Your private data is valuable" (I guess)

My TVs are on the IoT network so that I can control them from Home Assistant, but they're blocked from accessing the internet. DNS lookups are redirected or blocked (53 redirected to my local DNS resolver, 853 blocked), and DoH is blocked as best effort though it's hard to block HTTP DNS traffic, which again is why the devices are blocked in the firewall. All streaming is done via AppleTV, which is a platform I trust infinitely more than LG/Samsung/whatever.

If you're streaming via AppleTV, why do you need to give the TV itself access to the network?

I use Home Assistant to turn on/off the TV via automations, sensors, etc. I could possibly do it via HDMI CEC, but I have a couple of Sony Bravia TVs that more often than not completely ignores that, so I prefer having control over assuming it happens.

And then your neighbor spins up an unprotected network or something like xfinity which they could have a deal with and it connects there and phones home anyways.

And what exactly would they use that particular access path for ? I could see a threat if the TV had access to the internet and could establish a TLS tunnel or similar from the mothership, and execute commands on my LAN (or IoT network as it stands), and report back. That could establish a command & control channel that could potentially orchestrate an attack on my infrastructure via the TV. However, reporting that "network X exists and has these devices" over a different network complicates things a fair bit. In theory they could still use the TV as a command and control platform, but it would have to switch networks between my closed network and the open network in order to execute commands and report results. Not saying it's impossible, just very unlikely. Besides, the TVs are not alone in being cut off from the internet. I have two IoT networks, one for trusted devices (AppleTVs, Sonos, and the likes), and one for untrusted devices like TVs. They run on different VLANs, and anything on the untrusted IoT network can pretty much only talk to itself (client isolation) and the gateway, and there's no internet and no open ports to any other VLAN.

All of your blocking still doesn't change the fact that your LG TV is actively trying to scan your local hardware, gathering IP-addresses of devices, wi-fi names and signal strengths, creating digital finger prints of the audio and video projected on your screen, recording audio through the internal microphone, even when the TV is in standby or without an internet connection, saving the collected data locally and uploading to LG Ad Solutions as soon as the TV is connected to the internet.

But it's never connected to the internet, not even for software updates. If the TV isn't connected to the internet there's no reason to update it, assuming the TV works as expected. It's a trade off I guess. I use Home Assistant to control TVs, so kinda need the access.

Yeah which is why its imperative that you _never_ connect to the Internet.

Why don’t you just use it as a display and have a more reputable device (e.g a mini pc or an apple tv) feeding it? I’m not forced to give my tv network access at all, since it doesn’t do anything other than display whatever the apple box outputs…

This is (mostly) the way. Samsung TV without networking configured, XBox for everything - which is problematic in its own ways but it's a known quantity. It doesn't prevent it from "helpfully" hopping on a nearby unsecured network but a) I haven't spotted one of those in a while, and b) it hasn't ever been able to get updates to change its behaviour to make it start doing that if it previously wouldn't.

The Gamers Nexus video explained that they will connect to nearby open SSID’s to send the data they have collected. So just not connecting it to your network may not be enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment

GDPR compliance lawsuitssss in 3...

Somehow the EU only appears to target big wealthy service providers. I wonder why.

Please bring your actual argument instead of insinuating stuff. Anyway, the EU's reasons seem to be entirely legitimate to me.

In an age where AI can search vast amounts of data having something in your home or workplace turning what it hears into text looks like a problem waiting to happen. E.g. As soon as someone proves LG, Samsung, etc. recorded and stored credit card details and knowingly have weak security this is going to be a massive business liability. That's an easy one to put a compensation figure on but there's probably all sorts of other exploits waiting to happen. I think the most egregious thing here is that if you don't give the TV a network connection that it will actively search for other ways to get the data back to LG such as open WIFI.

At the same time an average citizen can sue and win against these corporations. I never ended up Suing because all companies settled once I showed the evidence. So try it out. Will get expensive for them to use lawyers against ai and still lose.

At that point network isolation stops looking like a privacy preference and starts looking like an adversarial relationship with a product you own

... product you ownꭞ ꭞ Terms and conditions apply

I'm thinking less about shame, as corporations are dead to shame, and more about proof the TV stored a record of your bank details it got from text to speech. If that's stored as text inside the TV and you lost money because it was copied by a hacker then you have a monetary value to show loss and a trail of liability you can use to sue LG.

> a trail of liability you can use to sue LG. The average user would not realize LG was the reason, if they do they will loose more money and effort; LG's reputation and public image won't be even damaged enough for them to take a notice. You are an ant for them and ants are only powerful if they work together.

People could return to burning down enterprises that they find unsavory or detrimental to society, such as they did during the industrial revolution, but this is problematic in that it's violent and not something the modern person often considers as viable. A part of why people consider this unviable now is in-part due to the consequences of these surveilance technologies. It's difficult to accomplish a revolution when everyone is being spied on all the time .

“Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on” - Larry Ellison (Oracle Corporation)

Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers (itsfoss.com)

It is sad that EU and USA are falling away from eachother. IMO we should try and stick together in these times. No doubt the US has financed a lot of things for te entire world and no doubt the European countries have put in a lot of effort too. I don't think we should argue over it. We have issues with privacy rights, elder burden, geopolitical turmoil, growing debt burden, environment and so on in all places we need to look forward and stick together...

They have to keep in mind: it will be more expensive (significantly, and in competent people, not only $$$) as you cannot beat big tech with their thousands of billions of $ and the fact they are scaled on a worldwide scope. And with a long term perspective, it is going to be even harder and more 'expensive': being independent and small has a price. Just do not go on the ground of their "complexity", if you do, you are done for, going to be hell (specs subset only of file formats/protocols, and/or very simple alternative file formats/protocols, think docx vs utf8 text file). And you better work on those technical regulations, and it is hard since it must not imped real and pertinent "progress".

Having a core system be entirely dependent on a foreign entity seems silly when there is a very viable alternative (which also saves a lot on licensing). I say VIABLE not equivalent. Linux is a lot rougher, and the change management process will be brutal. Retooling an entire department/etc to use whatever Linux has instead of entra/intune for device management will also be complex/incomplete/a learning curve. TLDR: any govt would be crazy not to at least trial it, and see if it works.

Why don't they replace Windows with Linux Mint? That would be much more groundbreaking than simply replacing online Office and Outlook. If you use Linux Mint you can replace Office with LibreOffice (offline) and Outlook with one of the many email clients available for Linux.

Linux is largely financed by American corporations. Without that, Linux wouldn't be anywhere near what it is today.

And without American AI to patch security holes, Linux and the software running on it will become hopelessly insecure.

Linux is 100% created by an ethnically Swedish guy in Finland. Your point is?

I’m a European who has contributed to the kernel (a single, pathetic patch but a patch nonetheless). That means at the very least it’s not 100% created by Linus

There are many, many things wrong with this statement, but let's repair it with past tense: "Linux was 100% created by an ethnically Swedish guy in Finland." The past tense from 30 years ago, the mid 1990s, because you've not been keeping up.

We certainly weren’t on the same side in WW2

The argument is much cleaner if immutable past actions remain un-weaponized. If somebody wants to tap me for reparations over chattel slavery in the US, and all I can say is that my in-country ancestors fought for the Union. Which, along with $5, will get you a cup of coffee down' the beanery.

We were neutral, but it's always funny how many US-guys always bring up WW2. That was maybe the last time, the US did anything "good" for the world. But yeah, I think it's useless to argue with you.

> That was maybe the last time, the US did anything "good" for the world. As a non-Swiss, non-American, I can assure you you need to study both American and Swiss modern history. The Swiss were far, far too cozy with the Nazis, and the Americans have done a spectacular amount of good since WWII ended.

> That was maybe the last time, the US did anything "good" for the world. But yeah, I think it's useless to argue with you. This is a completely mad assessment. Haven't you noticed the massive issues with scientific, health, and social funding globally now the US taxpayer has stopped bankrolling it?

Bankrolling is an editorial word that implies almost a one way benefit.

With great power comes great responsibility, it's not that complicated a concept. Switzerland doesn't have any aspirations to be the global hegemon, so they don't get graded on the global hegemon scale.

Another saying is: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." The US sent billions to Ukraine, and what did we get in return? Europeans telling us that "the last time the US did anything good for the world was WW2". It's not about hegemons vs non-hegemons either. China sends war supplies to Russia and Europe barely complains. How about this: Simply interpret our loss of support for Ukraine as an abandonment of aspirations of hegemony in Eastern Europe. Bingo, now we no longer have "great power" in that region, nor "great responsibility". Ukraine is your problem now. Ultimately, you're just playing language games. There's no reason a Swiss taxpayer should be less responsible than an American taxpayer. This is all just anti-Americanism. People like to scapegoat the US whenever they're dissatisfied regarding anything, anywhere around the world. There's always a creative way to blame the US. And because people are impossible to please, and they are always dissatisfied, the US is always blamed. I'm sick of it.

That well funded company already happened 20 years ago. Canonical. Their distribution is called Ubuntu, you might have heard of it.

Yet my mom does not have a Ubuntu desktop. And if I set one up for her, I woudl have to split my time between my job and tech support for her. So well funded, but not sure they are the right company.

I've used plenty of sketchy third party tools to get rid of all that weirdness but they keep patching it back somehow. I never get rid of the ads long term, also sticking to win10. Thing is I DJ straight from soundcloud mostly so going offline is not a real option for me.

Fantasy software: something that uses hooks to intercept internet requests from a specified other program, and sends them through USB to a corresponding phone app using a weird protocol, and the app relays them to the phone's internet connection so it's like a tether, and then your Windows program can be online, but Windows can't.

Tbh the only reason I can't put an ubuntu for my parents/grandparents is Microsoft office. Libre is generally ok, but they deal with lots of documents from different ppl/orgs that just need to have similar rendering. Windows is so bloated it's insane

Office in the browser works really well, in my experience.

TiVo to charge money for skipping commercials in your own recordings (cordcuttersnews.com)

I couldn't imagine engaging with any form of media where the possibility of being exposed to an ad exists. I haven't seen an ad in over 20 years now and I can't go back. Only watch Blu-rays and when I do Youtube, I do it through yt-dlp. If there are ads, I'm out. I just can't physically handle this assault on my mind. It's too much.

It depends on their analysis. Companies are interested in profit and not loyalty or morality. If they have done their analysis and predicted that this decision will bring more profit, good for them. Intuitively, without any analyses I predict the opposite will happen. But they may have real data supporting their decisions which I do not have.

I've been a heavy user of Tivo from 1999 to a couple years ago when I dropped cable TV. I have never heard of SkipMode. Is it something they just added? because "longest-standing and most popular DVR features" doesn't sound like it was just added.

Never owned a TiVo, but I just looked up what skipmode is, and I thought that was the whole point of a TiVo. Like, it has always been advertised as record shows and skip commercials. When they said skip commercials in the early 2000s, did they just mean fast forward?

I argued this in 2015: > "...why I believe you will not escape ads by paying for your content: people who can afford to pay for content are people with money, or people with buying power, in other words, the exact same people advertisers look to target. The more buying power you demonstrate, the more advertisers will target you. So the more you pay to keep ads away, the more advertisers will pay to put them back in..."

The lesson is you can't pay the danegeld to make a problem go away - the only lasting solution is to get the power and sovereignty to do it yourself. Or as Kipling put it - "But Iron – Cold Iron – is master of them all."

Keep Our Servers Running (blog.archive.org)

2:1 by who? That is not written. These types of schemes ring very poorly in my head for charity. If someone has the ability to give 2$ for every 1$ I give, why are they only giving on contingence? Just give the money!

Not if Google Pay has been used as the transaction agent. It's not a Google Play subscription.

https://support.google.com/paymentscenter/answer/9003237?hl=en

archive.today has been targeted by Western institutions, like the FBI, for over a year now. Which signals to me they are the good guys.

All that tells us is that the site is not run by the FBI. It could still be run by the CIA, Russian intelligence, or some lone morally neutral guy from Prague

And archive.org removes perfectly legal content from their accessible archives. Nobody's perfect. The guy running archive.today has done a shit ton of good.

My beef with IA is that none of the books as listed for borrowing are borrowable anymore. Why list it then!