"Fleabag, Derry Girls and Only Fools and Horses were cited as the kind of “distinctively British” programmes that would meet the obligation. Ofcom will be asked to draw up a workable definition of the concept." I'm not positive, but this might be the dumbest thing I've ever heard?
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Set up new work computer: in progress, but check.
Made booking to get new car window installed: check.
Ordered new personal computer: check.
Ordered new emergency prescription: check.
Canceled checkbook: ...done.
Call insurance: wish me luck.
Every job will be automated until only five remain: a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.
Someone broke into my car and stole a bunch of my stuff, including my laptop, so I feel both pretty stupid and kind of annoyed right now.
I don't feel old, generally, except when I read pieces like this. I remember accessing this webcam like it was yesterday ...
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"“We have seen more than 4,000 British companies coming to Estonia,” Kallas continued, explaining that the UK companies’ main reasons were access to the EU, the country’s tax system, as well as Estonia’s flourishing tech scene and digital infrastructure." Brexit was such a stupid own goal, and systems like Estonia's make a ton of sense.
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I deliberately have some conservative / libertarian sources in my feeds, and I swear to god you could probably measure my blood pressure rising every time I read them.
"To the overwhelming majority of observers, Fahmi successfully treads the line between the interests of entities who could be either his clients or his targets. Drone Emprit is one of a kind. With it, Fahmi has established credibility as a misinformation authority in a noisy landscape."
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"The four men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2006 on Wednesday morning. They were in the Derry area, and are now being questioned at Musgrave police station in Belfast." Lyra's death was a loss for the world.
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I want an Apple launch event but for things that will actually improve your life.
“One more thing: you can afford to be a homeowner now!”
“It’s a magical device at an unbelievable price that will cure your anxiety.”
“It’s the best inclusive democratic society we’ve ever built.”
The politics of the future are kind, inclusive, and equitable.
The attempted recall was another illustration of how bone-headed and backwards-facing the modern GOP platform is. The fading remnants of the worst parts of the 20th century continue to fade into nothingness. What a waste of time and money.
Reflecting that I’ve turned 180 degrees from my youthful “all content should be free” to “independent creators should be paid for their work”. I don’t think my younger stance was ever really legit for people with money - but taping / piracy is an important part of culture.
"You may not be able to get blood from stone. But now, getting stone from blood is a real possibility… At least on Mars. New research published in Materials Today Bio suggests an unlikely source for building materials on Mars: astronauts’ blood."
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I need to find a way to access a service where:
1) the user / pw are essentially stored in escrow
2) two specific people need to be simultaneous authed to a second service to be able to use the credentials
3) both people can then see the same authenticated screen
Any ideas?
Alright, you guys, I'm selling access to my social media identity.
For $5 you can send a message to me assuming I'm generically male.
For $10 you can sell me something I'm interested in.
For $20 I'll briefly recognize your brand.
For $40 you can use me to instigate a coup.
"“Social comparison is worse on Instagram,” states Facebook’s deep dive into teen girl body-image issues in 2020, noting that TikTok, a short-video app, is grounded in performance, while users on Snapchat, a rival photo and video-sharing app, are sheltered by jokey filters that “keep the focus on the face.” In contrast, Instagram focuses heavily on the body and lifestyle."
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I took delivery of a Tesla Model 3 a few months ago. My original intention was to take my mother to dialysis in it (she really wanted an electric car), but when that didn’t work out, I decided to keep it. For one thing, I’ve always resented having to own a car in the US, and I was worried about my environmental impact.
I was wowed: it’s a performant, beautiful car that feels safe. Features like auto-steer and an in-car personal assistant feel like driving in the future. It even connects to my phone and unlocks as I approach and locks as I walk away. It’s seamless: what an amazing thing.
And then I drove across the country in a 2021 Toyota Sienna.
The Toyota Sienna is not famously a beautiful car. It’s kind of got this soccer mom reputation, which shouldn’t malign it (what’s wrong with parents who take their kids to sports practice?), but at the same time it doesn’t give it a reputation for performance or elegance. It’s got a lot of room for suitcases and has a hybrid drive train that allows it to go 500-600 miles on a tank of gas, which made it a perfect vehicle for a long road trip. And it’s pretty comfortable in the back.
It turns out to be a performant, beautiful car that feels safe. It has auto-steer and (through Apple CarPlay) in-car Siri. It even connects to my phone and unlocks as I approach and locks as I walk away. It’s seamless: what an amazing thing.
Furthermore, CarPlay is an order of magnitude better as an operating system than Tesla’s software. The Tesla assistant sucks in comparison - and it’s not like Siri is known for its perfection. There are fewer apps available. And then on the phone side, both the Toyota and Tesla mobile apps leave a lot to be desired, but they also fundamentally do the same stuff.
The big advantage of the Tesla is that it doesn’t need any gas at all and doesn’t make exhaust fumes. I’m very happy with it and I’m not going to trade it in. But it turns out that some of the stuff that wowed me about it is just part of buying a modern car. They’re safer and smarter than they ever were, and the gap between a Tesla and a Toyota is much smaller than I thought.
One caveat: I didn’t spend the extra money to get full self-driving. In part, that’s because full self-driving seems to not quite be ready for primetime, although I’m tempted to try it for a few months for the automatic parallel parking. Automatic parallel parking, by the way, is something a Prius can also do.
That leads me to some interesting questions about what happens when fully-electric vehicles reach real ubiquity. My Tesla has a much higher range than electric vehicles produced by traditional auto makers, but I have to assume that won’t always be the case. What’s Tesla’s edge then? How do they stay in front? It’s not obvious to me.
I’m really happy to be driving an electric car, and I can’t wait until all cars are electric. But in terms of features, I’m not sure there will be a clear winner.
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That semi-annual moment when I raise my head from a series of meetings to discover what Apple wants me to spend money on next. I think I might be done upgrading my phone for a while, though. It's a lot of money for no really solid reason.
I came here to vote no to the disastrous recall attempt and make outdated pop culture references, and I’m all outta outdated pop culture references.
Hearing weird noises late at night when you’re in a big house by yourself hits different when you would be absolutely overjoyed if it was haunted.
"“The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times,” Butler said, referring to everyone who believes that sex is “biological and real or that sex is divinely ordained,” including TERFs like J.K. Rowling, fascists like Tucker Carlson, and religious conservatives like Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL). Their definition of the “anti-gender ideology movement” also includes anti-gay activists like opponents of marriage equality and anti-feminists who want to force women to follow traditional gender roles." Notably, this section of the interview was subsequently censored by The Guardian.
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Werd I/O © Ben Werdmuller. The text (without images) of this site is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.