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sandcat_

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sandcat_
·7 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา·discuss
For what it's worth, I just tried cancelling my NYTimes subscription to see if it was still as bad as I'd remembered, and aside from desperately begging me not to leave, it was quite simple. No need to contact support. I wasn't planning to go through with it, but I still got a nice discount for the next year, so.. thanks!
sandcat_
·เมื่อวานซืน·discuss
It may not be critical thinking though, but simply being contrarian, which is one of the easiest ways to sound smart without necessarily providing much of value or substance. And strangely, seeing as it’s relatively rare IRL, seemingly the default on the internet. Blindly praising isn’t worth much either, but I doubt that’s what jonluca is encouraging. It’s possible to “yes, and” without resorting to either sycophancy or relentless negatively.
sandcat_
·3 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Vancouver always feels like Cities Skyline or SimCity to me, in a good way. That point where you’ve maxed everything out and there’s all sorts going on. You turn a corner and you see a seaplane landing, people cycling, rowing, running, doing yoga in the park, boats going past, etc, etc. Then another corner and you see the mountains, ski resorts with the lights twinkling. In one direction there’s skyscrapers but in another, quaint colourful houses. I love it here.
sandcat_
·4 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Another thing I found recently, kind of the opposite, is that /insights reads from a cache of previous findings, often several months old. So if you’re finding that your /insights are all old news, asking it to clear them out is one way to get more relevant results.
sandcat_
·6 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Not really related, but the other thing I found out recently that cannabis can cause is the worst panic attack I have ever experienced: a DPDR (derealization / depersonalization) panic attack. I’ve had regular panic attacks before. I get one a year, roughly, where I get essentially heart attack symptoms. But this was something else. It felt like something was truly, irrevocably broken with my mind and I couldn’t even describe what. Utterly terrifying. I was a heavy user but dropped it the next day.
sandcat_
·7 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Is their whole premise that they forgot to put “and search” at the end of their prompt?
sandcat_
·9 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
That is one of the creepiest things I've seen in a while! And the first time something akin to uncanny valley has gotten me. The way it slowly raises out of its dock. The arms just hanging there in the photo at the bottom. The weirdly broad 'smile' it seems to have (it's just the lip of the head I think, but it looks like a very creepy smile to me). Its slow methodical movements. The way it wheeled past that doorway. Eurghh. Is it just me? I feel like I could never relax with this in my home. Like I'll turn around to find it inches away from me, watching.
sandcat_
·9 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Does anyone actually do this? I’m looking to reduce my reliance on iCloud but I’ve kept my backups there so far as it always seemed onerous to have to plug in and trigger the backup manually. And easy to forget, too.
sandcat_
·11 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Unrelated, sorry:

Curious. With my adblocker on, I don’t see a title on this post. Anyone else seeing this too? I couldn’t say which rule is doing it. (I’m on mobile, but I only use typical lists like EasyList etc.) First time I’ve had to disable my adblocker on HN!
sandcat_
·12 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
I find the reduction in smoking cigarettes fascinating at a societal level, in a similar way to a few other topics: toxoplasma gondii, widespread use of SSRIs. Probably some others I'm not recalling.

This must have had an effect, beyond health. Surely? It's hard to research because it gets crowded out (understandably) by all the negatives from smoking and all the improvements to health from the reduction of it.

But nicotine does have an effect on the mind. Certainly some positives (concentration, I believe) and I'm sure some negatives too. So the idea that a society would, over the course of a few decades, quite sharply reduce it's use of a particular drug surely must have had some interesting knock-on effects.

I've heard some people wonder if the rise of ADHD diagnoses could be related. That in the past all the ADHD folks would smoke and self-medicate, without even realizing. I have no idea if that's true.
sandcat_
·13 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
I'm curious, has it affected pleasure at all in other areas of life? Are things you used to enjoy still as enjoyable? Is it more the "addictiveness" of things that has dropped, as opposed to how enjoyable they are?

(Never tried them myself, but very intrigued by them.)
sandcat_
·13 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Eh, this is a bit fatalist. Every bit of pushback is a tax. If a company applies to build in X location but is threatening to move to Y location where it's cheaper, or they can get away with something, there's obviously a reason they'd prefer X. They wouldn't be arguing otherwise. So if they are "forced" to move to Y, that's a tax.

See also: working at unethical tech firms, fears over the rich leaving NYC, etc.
sandcat_
·13 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
> I know what the comment said, thank you very much.

I'm not sure you do. Or at least you're replying to a very uncharitable interpretation.

From my perspective, this read as: the moment you put one of these IP cameras in a room, you should assume you're now in public, no matter what assurances you might have from the manufacturer or what safeguards you might have put in place. So if you intend for a particular space to remain private, don't put one of these cameras there.

> it is their fault because it is "public"

From my reading at least it didn't seem to imply that "it's the camera owner's fault", or that they should know better or that they deserve what they get, etc.
sandcat_
·15 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
The quote from Gruber in question (IMO, a little more reasonable than you give it credit for.)

> For the same reason, I also do not think they’re going to raise the prices of existing products mid-cycle. ... But unlike with the MacBook Pros in March, I wouldn’t bet more than a beverage on my hunch here. However out of character it would be for Apple to raise prices midway through product cycles, the global RAM shortage is unprecedented. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple pushes price increases moments after I hit “Publish” on this post.

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/22/apple-device-pr...
sandcat_
·17 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
That’s not true. From mandatory refunds when selling online, to capped credit card fees, to longer warranties, the EU is clearly better for consumer rights. Some US businesses have realized that openly screwing your customers isn’t good business practice, but they’re somewhat of the exception I hear (and a lot of those companies offer the same policies, or better, in the EU, e.g. Costco)

Apple is another good example. Their base warranty is two years in the EU versus one year in the US, and there’s additional protection on top in many EU countries that extends it to the expected life of the product, in some cases as long as 5-6 years.

And again, all of these are backed up by the law, not just a policy that the company can revoke or decide not to enforce.
sandcat_
·17 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
I feel like there’s a difference between Virgil Abloh being brought in to work on an iteration of the Air Force 1s and simply ripping off a design from an unrelated company, presumably without permission, and making a few tweaks.
sandcat_
·18 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Are you sure this isn’t just because it’s the “wrong” people who are building them? Instead of the typical (older) FOSS/geek/whatever crowd?

It feels overly negative to me. People, mostly younger people, are building them, tinkering with them and are excited to post about them. Is it any surprise they’re doing so on TikTok or wherever? Yes, it’s a little ironic considering the anti-big-tech vibes mentioned in the article, but is it any different from when our lot were posting to Google+ etc?

I don’t know, this feels like a good thing to me, and something we should encourage. The more people playing and experimenting with tech rather than passively consuming the better.

If I was a teenager again today I like to think I’d be hacking one of these together.
sandcat_
·20 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
> being able to buy "off the shelf", two click VPN solution for 5$ already puts you into "geek" category

I’m not sure that’s true anymore. I discovered recently my 70 year old, very technology-averse, parents are using a VPN (much to my initial concern). I think it’s for viewing football matches, or so they can watch iPlayer when they travel. They’re advertised on buses, etc. They’re pretty common these days.

That said I think you’re right that a block at the App Store level etc is enough to cut usage significantly.
sandcat_
·28 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Those closed labs need to justify the investment still, and as we approach stagnation in model capabilities that’s harder and harder. Right now Fable and Mythos are cutting edge, but soon enough they’ll be commodities. And for every company like OpenAI/Anthropic that wants to get ahead with a SOTA model, there’ll be a hundred companies aiming to commoditize their complements.
sandcat_
·28 วันที่ผ่านมา·discuss
Eh, they’ll learn soon enough there’s a limit to their power, unless they somehow start acquiring munitions. There’s a reason the electricity companies and other utilities didn’t take over the economy, despite now being essential.