I thought it was just me and my old iPhone, but I’ve also been having a lot of trouble connecting for the last few months. Since May, really.

Same. I’m so glad we somehow had cable on these things, because my class watched it happen live, right after wheeling this cart in to watch a history documentary. Lots of other teachers turned it off because tons of kids in my school had parents working in those buildings, but my teacher knew it was an important thing for us to see.

Yeah I think I’ve seen that usage, but I’ve also seen it used as a negative put down rather than an affirmation. I just have a lot of trouble with this one for some reason. Anyone know where it comes from?

And every time I think I understand what people mean by it, I’m wrong. This one has got to stop.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know how la croix does it, but that water has serious flavor, without any of that gross chemical aftertaste. I drink so much la croix…

Huh, so now it’s the verge, but less unique and creative. Not to disparage anyone doing redesigns, it’s a valiant effort.

Nope seems like you understand it perfectly. It’s completely detached from reality. It’s like saying “we know of no rigorous study showing that accurate weather forecasts produced a tangible increase in the number of people who like bagels.” Like, okay, sure, but no one thought there was.

That article really rubbed me the wrong way. It was a bunch of marketing people basically saying “privacy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it doesn’t make poor people rich” and “you’ll ruin the ability of small businesses to thrive if you don’t allow them to base their businesses on intrusive mass surveillance.”

The arrogance is astounding. If you can’t start a business without invading my privacy, you should rethink your business model. Just because surveillance marketing makes finding customers easier, doesn’t make it right. This part in particular is absurd:

Privacy can be, in some sense, a problem of the privileged. We know of no rigorous study showing that toughened digital marketing privacy policies produced tangible economic benefits for anyone, let alone lower-income consumers.

No, privacy is a problem for all of us, not just the privileged. To suggest otherwise is a deflection. It’s not always just about economics, even the working class have other things we value.

Wow, props to Castellucci for being a stand up person and not using their discovery to control or mess with tens of thousands of people’s power supply. And props to GivEnergy for not turning around and suing them after they reported finding the issue.

This could have gone badly in either direction, but we lucked out that this Castellucci seems to be an excellent and conscientious citizen.

Haven’t we always known this? It’s the same concept as a Stingray device, which is used to spy on people because their devices connect to it automatically, assuming it’s a normal cell tower. People don’t know what tower they’re connected to, so if you connect to a “fake” or exploited tower, you’ve basically handed over the keys. This is essentially the same thing, but on a 5g network, which is presumably made up of even more nodes/towers.

The justice system doesn’t apply to corporations, even though they’re people. And since the corporations are run by billionaires, the most peopliest people there are, the justice system definitely doesn’t apply to them. Money = speech, and these corporations have the most money, therefore they get the most speech, meaning they have more rights than us normal people, and can get away with breaking the same laws that would get any of us thrown in jail.

/s but not really…

I don’t know if there’s a name for it, but I definitely understand what you’re talking about. For me, the tingly calm feeling comes from the abrupt change between constant background white-noise and sudden quiet. I love love love that feeling. The moment after you turn off a loud fan, shutting off a car engine, when an ambulance siren finally stops, a jump cut between a loud action sequence in a movie and a normal scene. Even the moment when a song’s accompaniment drops out but a cappella vocals continue.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Edit: typo

I was in second grade when the school district started thinking about providing internet access for a few computers. You could just add a period at the end of a URL to get around the filters. No idea how or why it worked, but I told everyone. Those were the days.

That’s a good point, I hadn’t thought about it as a strategic attack on the small people, you’re onto something. It’s frankly absurd that this is what we’ve come to.

I mean sure, it’s cute. And the video is worthy of like, a small smirk, but is this really what the Lincoln Project is up to these days? Seems like they could be using their money and influence more responsibly. It’s probably more valuable to at least try to change some peoples’ minds. I don’t see how spending money producing a sketch that wouldn’t even make it on SNL is worthwhile.

You already tortured and destroyed the orb for liking other orbs, you can put your hands down now.

Pending Train is pretty darn close to what you’re describing. I only got through the first episode, it falls prey to a lot of annoying little tropes, but it’s a cool concept for sure.

His sister (who is dead now by the way), was a federal judge.

Ha! I never thought about the underground mansion hideaway. Good stuff. You’re right, they’d be pretty much unstoppable and unbeatable.

If I could bend, I think I’d choose the earth nation. Imagine how much cool shit you could build. Need an extension on your house? Here’s a brand new stone wall in 30 seconds.

I would take it upon myself to solve homelessness, if it existed. You need a house? Done. You need a house? How many rooms? Done.

I would build so. much. stuff. It would get weird.