Heh tbh I’m not even into debating. I’m just a curious dude who lives under a rock ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

To be clear: There are some people who take the time to write out genuinely helpful answers. But the down-votes just raise another question: Why? Was the question offensive? And if so, how?

I don’t have any big answers, but just a small piece of advice: Don’t shame people for asking questions when they just want to learn.

I would think that’s the perfect opportunity to educate someone, but so many people will just down-vote a naive question and move on without explanation, which is even more confusing.

I’m speaking from my own experience. I still tend to be neutral on a lot of things so far, but my brain is kinda… unusual. I think most people might gradually feel pushed away, “othered”, etc. and eventually lean in the opposite political direction than you might want.

TL;DR: If you want people on your side, stop pushing them away. And maybe ask others on your side to stop too.

Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if lots of new parents are asking LLMs for advice.

And before AI (and probably still), new parents probably googled a lot of things.

And before internet search engines, new parents probably checked out books from libraries.

Why do they look like that?

Weren’t those violent though? Or maybe I’m thinking of something else. The COVID era memories kinda blur together in my brain. I definitely remember a lot of destruction around that time though

Those seem like reasonable points, I think.

I don’t use any other Apple devices, so I have no opinion on that. And I don’t often find myself provisioning macOS, but I use Nix to manage my system, so transferring to a new MacBook has been pretty easy for me.

I tend to do a lot of Linux-ey things, and macOS (Unix-based) is much closer to that than Windows is. Also, I often see programming languages/runtimes that require extra/different steps to get up and running in Windows vs. Linux and macOS.

Sure, Windows has WSL, but every time I’ve needed to do some IO-heavy operations with it, it was extremely slow. (Though it has been a few years, so maybe it’s better now?)

I also do a lot of web dev, so macOS offers a few more tools. If Safari wasn’t so terrible, then macOS would become less necessary. But AFAIK (I haven’t checked in a while), macOS is the only environment that can run Safari in an iOS emulator.

My second choice would be NixOS… or maybe Ubuntu.

Windows seems a bit bloated to me. I remember seeing something in the Start menu about X-Box, and I couldn’t uninstall it, for some reason. I could remove the icon from the menu, but it still linked to some binary that was installed with the OS. I’m not a gamer, why do I need that on my system? Also, why did I have to uncheck so many data harvesting options during setup? I’m not very comfortable with things like that being built in to the OS, and enabled by default. I remember a time when things like that were commonly known as “spyware” – I guess it’s just normalized now. (To be fair, I’m not a fan of having to decline Apple Intelligence multiple times on macOS either.)

Ah, thanks for the explanation. That totally makes sense. If forced to choose a foreign entity to harvest my data, I’d prefer the one least likely to share my data with my government too.

thats not what they said did they?

Is it not? They said they’re “more concerned” with American companies harvesting data. Doesn’t that mean that, given the choice between the US and China harvesting their data, they’d choose China because it concerns them less? Did I misunderstand it?

they said they are more concerned about American companies harvesting their data as they live in Europe and don’t have as much affinity to China.

Actually, they didn’t say this part:

and don’t have as much affinity to China.

They answered my question with a more specific explanation though, and now I understand. In their position, I’d probably choose China too.

This kind of tech stuff isn’t really BIFL. However, you can extend the life of it by separating the components. So an OPNsense box for the firewall/gateway (this can last many years with very little maintenance), a separate WiFi access point (AP), and a switch.

Many consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers are all three of these components combined into one (usually) low-quality package. When one part of it dies or becomes obsolete, the whole unit would need to be replaced.

By separating the components, you can get better quality hardware (even if consumer-grade), and replace/upgrade them independently when needed.

Just curious: Why would you prefer your data to be harvested in China vs. the US?

Edit: I’m also genuinely curious about why this question is getting downvoted. Is it offensive or something? I meant no harm to anyone.

macOS. I find it to be the least inconvenient for most of my needs.

I once had a great bond with an eclectus. It took a lot of work, but when I finally earned her trust, we were great friends.

One day, I trimmed her nails, and it destroyed our friendship 😔 If you get one, have someone else trim its nails so it doesn’t hate you. Parrots can really hold a grudge.

I understand why you might think that, but that really doesn’t apply to a parrot and their noise.

Btw, an eclectus can (and probably will, regularly) emit sounds loud enough to make your ears ring. They’re meant to be heard over long distances outside in the open. Inside the walls of a home, it’s crazy loud.

Edit to add: They also make the noises when you’re not even home. It has nothing to do with treats.

🙋🏻‍♂️ Dumb question: What is being protested? What would the result of a “successful” protest be?

Passengers*, I think. I’m pretty sure passenger vehicles are subject to higher quality standards than vehicles meant only for cargo (ISS supplies, for example).

(I could be wrong. I’m an internet comment, not a rocket surgeon 🤷🏻‍♂️)

When I was young and dumb, I really tried to ignite gasoline with lit cigarettes, and it seemed impossible. The results would have been the same with water.

I’m sure it’s possible in just the right conditions, but it doesn’t seem easy.

Years ago, when I was in the computer repair business, there was an industry term for apps that did this: spyware. It was considered a form of malware back then. I still think it’s wild that spyware has become so widely accepted in society.

I’m not disagreeing with you (I don’t know enough about the department’s operations), but I can understand why people are unhappy with the ED (Department of Education). It has existed for almost 40 years, and has spent tens (sometimes hundreds) of billions of dollars annually.

The result: Well, most Americans’ reading level, as highlighted in this post. Also, a shocking number of people can’t even name a single country in Africa – a big continent with more than 50 countries to choose from. Also, college borrowers in the US owe ~$1.5 trillion to the ED.

Should the ED be abolished? Honestly, I’m way to ignorant to even make an educated guess. But after so many decades, hundreds of billions of dollars spent, and $trillions of debt owed by students, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that something should at least change.

I’ve noticed that, when confronted with longer text, many people just use an LLM to summarize it now.