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ThinkingGuyon Car Is a Smartphone on Wheels. Here's Who's Listening

This is the way.

ThinkingGuyon Accidental Aesthetics and Romance of Power Wires

As an American, I'm reminded of Henry Farney's 1904 painting "The Song of the Talking Wire"

https://www.csub.edu/~gsantos/img0038.html

ThinkingGuyon Bookshelf – Self-hosted eBook library that runs on object storage

I recommend LibraryThing to every book lover I meet.

https://www.librarything.com/

ThinkingGuyon Fairphone is now officially available in the United States

The Fairphone (Gen. 6+) comes with upgraded internal hardware that doesn’t compromise on our industry-leading repairability standards. The ‘plus’ isn't about adding features for a longer spec sheet; it's about intentional improvements that keep your device capable for longer.

AI-like typing detected.

ThinkingGuyon Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's

They don't last as long anymore and are more difficult to repair.

ThinkingGuyon Launching Health in ChatGPT to US Users

It's an acronym in which neither 'P' stands for 'privacy'

ThinkingGuyon Moist Towelette Museum

This reminds me something my the teacher of my university public speaking class told us (in the context of doing research): No matter how trivial, esoteric or obscure the topic, there is someone on earth who has devoted their entire career to studying it.

ThinkingGuyon Moist Towelette Museum

I had to look up that reference:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Community_characters#P...

ThinkingGuyon DOGE is done. What happened to its records?

You might be interested in this:

"So you want to reform democracy" - Joshua Tauberer https://medium.com/civic-tech-thoughts-from-joshdata/so-you-...

ThinkingGuyon The 'absolute magic' of Morse code that still connects people globally

I've told my family that if I'm ever in a hospital bed due and seemingly unresponsive due to injury or illness, to check whether I'm not trying to communicate (using eye movements, finger twitches, or whatever) in morse code.

ThinkingGuyon DOGE is done. What happened to its records?

While your point is perfectly valid, there's a little more nuance to the $400 (or $600) hammer story:

https://www.govexec.com/federal-news/1998/12/the-myth-of-the...

ThinkingGuyon Men's average testosterone levels have halved in last 50 years

Could this be a possible factor in the reduction in violent crime (at least in some countries)?

ThinkingGuyon Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly

IM is fine for quick, ephemeral communications ("I just arrived at the restaurant") or automated processes ("Your authentication code for $BANK is 9975"), but for meaningful, thoughtful communication between human beings, email works better for me. The main advantages:

- I use my own domain, so I'm not tied to any single provider

- I can keep a copy of everything (I still have some emails from 30 years ago)

ThinkingGuyon Age verification tech could put children at greater risk, says think tank

If only there were some way to use a phone to contact people, without going through a social media platform.

ThinkingGuyon The newest Instagram “exploit” is the goofiest I've seen

If they really want them, they can get them, one way or another.

ThinkingGuyon Naphtha shortages in Japan

Unsurprisingly, XKCD has already contemplated this:

https://xkcd.com/993/

ThinkingGuyon The first British person in space

Couldn't help but be reminded of Eddie Izzard's old "Career Advisor" bit:

"I want to be a space astronaut, go to outer space and discover things that have never been discovered!"

"Look, you're British, so scale it down a bit, all right?"

https://youtu.be/xGGeLHnDQk8?si=XNEC8Pg8xER6EBOX&t=12

ThinkingGuyon Shunning AI is the human choice

The difference between generative AI and math is that math gives everybody the same answer every time.

ThinkingGuyon NASA still maintains some of the Voyager spacecraft code from the 70s era

Why does the picture at the top of the article look more like Cassini–Huygens than Voyager?

ThinkingGuyon Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

I wonder if removing the antenna would possibly cause the modem to try to transmit at a higher power level, thus running the car's battery down.

ThinkingGuyon Removing the modem and GPS from my 2024 RAV4 hybrid

There's also OPVS, which supposedly can be self-hosted (I don't know how good their product is; I'm content with 3G-only 2012 Leaf being permanently offline).

https://www.openvehicles.com

ThinkingGuyon Ask.com has closed

I was trying to explain to my grandmother (born in 1923) what the Internet was. So I pulled up Ask Jeeves and typed in, "What's the weather in [grandmother's hometown, population 4000]. And the precise current forecast came up. That was in 1997.

ThinkingGuyon SFO Gate Explorer

Great idea. Now do ATL, please!

ThinkingGuyon Show HN: Rip.so – a graveyard for dead internet things

I still use it regularly.

ThinkingGuyon How a subsea cable is repaired (2021)

I've read a number of articles on this topic, but there's one issue I've never seen addressed: With the large number of cables now in place, often with multiple cables running along similar paths, how great is the risk that in the course of raising up one end of a broken cable, you accidentally snag some other cable that was laid across the first cable after it was laid? Or is the ocean just so vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big that hardly any cables cross over each other?

ThinkingGuyon The 'paperwork flood': How I drowned a bureaucrat before dinner

I would hope that "any physician taking one look at you in the waiting room" would be a sufficient test.

ThinkingGuyon Illinois Introducing Operating System Account Age Bill

You must be too young to remember Tipper Gore...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipper_Gore

ThinkingGuyon Hisense TVs add unskippable startup ads before live TV

My local PBS station has some good shows (ad-free)

ThinkingGuyon Modern Illustration: Archive of illustration from c.1950-1975

If you enjoy the retro style of art, especially the cartoony stuff, I would recommend checking out the work of artist Derek Yaniger:

https://derekart.com/

ThinkingGuyon The Misuses of the University

The podcast "Revisionist History" by Malcom Gladwell did a great episode on the US News and World Report college ranking list, and the (often perverse) incentives it's created.

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/revisionist-history/lord-of-...