I think programming can be a pretty dull task, where you spend hours over hours copy-pasting fragments of code from former projects and/or from other sources, adjust it to your needs, run it, remove the bug, run it again and find the new ten bugs over and over again.
But you get to wear a black hoodie and a mask.
A cheap phone last about as long and does 90% the same stuff
This is true. You can get an almost equal performance out of a cheap phone. But I learned that more expensive or high-end phones recieve more software updates than cheaper entry-tier phones.
For instance, I own an LG K8 (Model LG-M200E) from 2017. The battery still holds enough charge (although it is designed to be replaced), the camera works, the touch display still responds properly - but it only recieved one update (Android 7 --> Android 8) in 2018. I wouldn’t consider it secure and I certainly don’t have my online banking on the phone. Meanwhile it gets very hot and slow when I use Google Maps. Unfortunately, there is no way to replace its operating system with an alterntive OS, linke Grephene OS or Lineage. None of the many alternative operating systems offer suppert for this specific model.
My next phone will propably be mid-price ranged.
Edit: typos
I have a simailar strategy: I bought a mouse, considered it good enough to work with, bought the same mouse again to put it away for when the first-bought mouse is failing.
I do the same with shoes since I wear the same brand and model for years, so that an internet purchase is without any risk for me.
Here is a well-written summary of why it is important to keep things about you hidden to other entities.
No, you have something to hide
The text ist written is in Dutch. You can translate the website via Firefox to English.
“I’m sorry that you…”
… feel offended by my point of view.
That one was indeed disturbing.
Try velcro zip ties. They are reuseable. For example: https://www.amazon.com/velcro-zip-ties/s?k=velcro+zip+ties
I think this is because it is pretty boring to film a computer in action, because it does noting - it doesn’t move for example. So beeping sounds were added for every action a computer would do: opening or closing windows, transferring files to a disk, calculating,…
These sounds were added at a time computers were not that common in every household and to emphazise that the computer is doing something. In recent movies, computers are more silent.
Another thing film makers did to show interaction with a computer is the constant usage of the keyboard. Every thing is done with the keyboard. Open a window: type 5 sceonds on the keyboard. Transferring a file onto a disk: type the whole bible on the keyboard. This was done because it would be pretty boring to show someone use the mouse or drag-and-drop files.
It its somehow compareable to the movie trope of constantly reloading a gun. You can see this often in older movies: the protagonist is going inside a building and he is reloading his gun. Then he stops a the corner of a hallway and is reloading the gun again - despite no shot has been fired. This was also done to show the audience that a gun will be involved.
Actually, someone already came up with the idea of anal fingerprinting, albeit in another context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ
Of course many comments in this threas are exaggerated; there won’t be played any ads into your brain.
But there are some implications for the usage of Neuralink that are worth thinking about it - especially when it comes to privacy:
Given that it “just” runs with firmware, so that the implant can function in a way most stable and reliably, and also given that there will be no subscription model involved into all of that, will the user (patient) be able to control the functionality of the implant (e.g. controlling the intensity of the eletric signal sent out from the implant to counteract the intensity of a tremor)?
And how will that happen? One thing I could think of is to control the implant with a smartphone app. How good will that smartphone app be? Will it be programmed sloppily like these apps we know from Internet-Of-Things-Apps and have a ton of bugs? Are those (medicinal!) apps secure in terms of privacy? What is with the product support? Will the implant be discontinued after a few years (and also the app)? What if your smartphone fails (no power or hardware failure, or after an update it doesn’t work)?
A friend of mine has an app to monitor her blood sugar. She is not qute satified with the app. Luckily the provider of those diabetes sensors provided a separate device, so that the app is just an addition for measuring when you are travelling, for example. But in their last iteration they tried to omit the separate device, probably in order to save costs. My friend had to explicitly ask for it.
With that in mind I’m not keen on having control on such medicinal devices with a smartphone only. If the smartphone fails, there would be no backup. Will such similar things be the case regarding Neuralink?
Thank you for clarifying.
Never been a Twitter - or “X” - user, but:
Isn’t it the whole point to show everyone your blue check mark that you have been approved or something like that? How else would one know that you are the real deal?
This will have a huge impact on free speech in Russia. Also, information we receive from Russia may not be genuine after this measurement will be implemented, as it will be politically in terms of Russia - as we know it from China right now. In order to spread the REAL things that are going on, people will need to risk their freedom.
I’m sure these implants will give much needed ease to patients who suffer frem tremors like parkinson and other neurological diseases. But the things I’m mostly concerned about are:
In addition to my comment I leave this article here:
https://mostlysignssomeportents.tumblr.com/post/723755486547181568/autoenshittification
This article sums up the ongoing enshittification with cars and other devices, backed up with further sources.
It’s always a good advice to be on good terms with the surveillance officers. I do it too and sometimes they even look in the other direction when I did wrong ;-)
Things I do what give me a percieved sense of privacy/ security:
The password storage thing sometimes seems to be a hassle. I have stored my passwords in a physical moleskin, written with a pen, like an old person would do. When I have that book not availiable (when travellling), I have to guess my credentials.
At work I have the browser stored all the credentials. It’s so much faster and easier. But since it’s at my job I don’t have to worry about my own private stuff.
“Saturday” references to the planet “Saturn”.
Here is a video about the origin of the weekday’s names in different languages: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gifimOF5a_U
I addition to that, here is a video which explains how the months got their names: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9iOt48bTw4&list=PL5x1QB-VRuDtHCWcuSx0DgJr2mnuNXkSB&index=4 This channel has very interesting videos about the ethymological origins of different things. It’s worth watching.
Edit: spelling
Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn’t need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.
Despite not answering your question correctly, I have something where Windows is superior to macOS:
When you start a Windows program and want the program window to fill your screen completely, you just have to drag the window towards the upper edge of the screen and the window fills the whole size of the screen.
On macOS there is not such an option. You have to drag the program window manually to the full size of the screen. Although there is a full-screen mode (green button in the upper left of the window), when activated, the window is in full screen, but the menu bar at the top of the screen is hidden. However, at least macOS remembers the last size of the program window, so you don’t have to drag it to full screen size again.