I feel like athletic shoes have mostly become what they were always meant to be: athletic shoes - you know, for doing something athletic, not just for going to Costco or McDonalds or whatever else. Back in the 90s, athletic shoes, like Nike, were for everything; they were the default shoe style. Now people wear Crocs or flip-flops or something else, not necessarily athletic shoes. So now the market is smaller for Nike - they can make the best athletic shoes in the world, but most people aren't athletes, they just wanna slip something on their feet and go to the grocery store.
A few months ago, my Roku TV started displaying these weird popups, saying something like, "Looks like you're watching college basketball. Did you know Roku-TV also has college basketball?" - something like that. Well, for the Roku device, yes, there was a setting I could disable, but (1) Roku pushed this 'feature' and made it default without my knowledge/consent, and (2) the config setting says the popups will stop, but it doesn't mention the data collection; my assumption is they're still collecting that data for their own data analytics purposes.
Trump is the undisputed champion of creating/influencing the narrative. The mainstream news these days (left and right-leaning) is really nothing more than an amplifier for his various social media accounts. There's so much scandal to this administration - from being named-checked throughout the Epstein files to the billions he and his family have made during this term, yet nothing happens. The media only talks about his latest, dumb-ass Tweets. Trump has tuned 'flood the zone' so well that he can literally do anything he wants without consequence.
I just recently learned about ACR. My first thought was to set up an LG TV in the basement and stream non-stop p0rn for 3 months or so. Then see what ads start showing up for me. Like, I wonder if there's a target group called "Creeps addicted to p0rn."
I'm increasingly finding businesses that simply don't accept cash. Want a beer at the Clippers game? Can't pay with cash. Even a local bar near my house stopped accepting cash about a year ago - a bar!
Every time I've interacted with the police while wearing sunglasses (when I was younger and lived near the beach) they've instructed me to remove them. I was told they need to see my pupils to get an idea if I'm under the influence. Not saying I agree with any of this, just saying the cops already have a way to negate the creepy sunglasses.
I never ran up a phone bill, but I did get the cops sent to my house.
I was into war dialing with my C64. Every night I would input the parameters, start the war dialer, go to sleep, then wake up the next morning hoping I got something. Well, one night, about an hour-or-so after I started the war dialer, there was a loud knock on the front door. I looked out the window and saw a cop car. I knew what was going on immediately. I somehow fucked up inputing the dialing prefix to the war dialer, setting it to’ 911’. Then I let the dialer do its thing; it called 911 around 1000 times. The cops were NOT happy. They were basically yelling at my mom. I tried to explain what was going on, but people didn’t know about computers or modems back then. The cops thought I was calling 911 and hanging up, over and over, like a prank.
One thing I remember is my Mom really wasn’t all that mad at me. She wasn’t happy, for sure, but I got the sense that she recognized that there was a lot worse trouble I could be getting myself into. I’m 100% certain that she would’ve been more upset if I ran up a $300 phone bill.
Yes, thank you C64 and all the brilliant people that made it happen.
I also want to thank my mother for giving me a C64 for Christmas in 1983. My single mother worked 2 jobs most of my childhood (corporate gig by day, waitress in the evening); our family always struggled with money. I have no idea how she paid for the C64, plus the 1541 disk drive and 300-baud modem. I also didn't know the C64 would be so pivotal in my life - I was just some nerdy kid who loved to tinker with stuff, but Mom knew. So, thanks Mom; I owe you everything. Oh, and sorry for tying up the phone line all the time.
I think the reverse is true. Anthropic gave a generous donation to the 'Trump fund' to make it go away, and so the government intentionally fumbled the case. Now Anthropic can continue to do business without this stench following them around.
The most ironic part of this is that data center pollution will impact Trump supporters the most. In 5-to-10 years, after swimming in the same river their parents and grandparents swam in, kids will start develop breathing complications or their teeth will fall out, and there won't be anything anyone can do about it. Congratulations, MAGA, you played yourself.
> Sounds like the beginning of the end for the EPA
The beginning of the end of the EPA started the day Trump was sworn in. In the last few years several cases have been decided by this Supreme Court that have effectively reduced the EPA to an advisory board, like a group of consultants that have no real authority over anything.
I had a friend in the mid-90s that was in a mildly successful band. They did a few national tours as opener for bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I met up with him once while he was out on tour. I was thinking he was living his best life, like he was gonna brag about the lifestyle. Just the opposite. He hated touring, said it was very stressful, and that he just wanted to eat a home-cooked meal and sleep in the same bed more than two nights in a row. And yes, he said industry folks were constantly pushing free drugs.
I remember in the early-80s, maybe 5th grade, being taught fractions, specifically the "Dolly Parton fraction", where the numerator is larger than the denominator. I've got a feeling they don't teach that anymore.
One minor fact about Dolly I've always found fascinating is that she was married to the same dude for almost 60 years, until he passed away recently. I mean, being as famous as she was as an entertainer - that just seems like an extreme anomaly.
I remember feeling like I was becoming obsolete by Windows 95. I had built up a skillset getting Windows 3.1 configured properly and connected to this new thing called "the internet" (Trumpet Winsock!). Then Windows 95 came out with everything built-in - TCP/IP, browser, email, and most of all, plug-and-play.
Whoa. This is weird. My friend's dad was an FBI agent for over 20 years. I remember him telling us a story about a case he worked in the early-90s where a Coca Cola exec was embezzling millions from the company. The exec was caught, basically red-handed. After working with his lawyer, the exec provided a story about some South American gang that strong-armed him into washing money for them (threatened to kill him and his family; I think he said they even kidnapped his daughter). My friend's dad said his team worked with the exec for several months to corroborate the story about the South American gang. Apparently he was telling the truth. Then, after gathering intel on the gang, they came up with a plan to go after them. However, a few days before they were set to act on their plan, they were told to stand down. Actually, no, before that they were told by their leadership that there would be no capture (of the gang), only kill. Then the plan was cancelled altogether.
My friend's dad rarely, if ever, talked about his work. However, he got loose lips after retiring, and if he had a few beers in him.
I helped a friend-of-a-friend around 2010 with a 'computer issue'. She ran the original version of QuickBooks on an old-ass PC, connected only to a dot-matrix printer (no internet). Everything worked fine, except the printer was toast; she wanted me to fix it. She said she went to Best Buy for a replacement dot-matrix printer, and the staff pretty much laughed at her, told her to just upgrade. I asked her why she has never done that, upgrade her setup - PC, Windows, QuickBooks, printer, etc. She said everything worked fine for her, so why pay money to upgrade? Back then I thought she was kinda crazy, just being stubborn. But after a few years of reading about companies like Broadcom and Being Spoons, I get it. Good for her.
Oh, and the 'fix' to her busted dot-matrix printer was eBay. I found an exact model for less than $100. Ordered it. Connected it. And she was back in business. She was so happy she made me a big plate of lumpia. :)
Piling on. My friend worked for a Midwestern city, maintaining the water and sewer systems. Once, while in the field, 2 dudes ran across the street, one chasing the other, both in plain clothes. The chaser had a gun and was shooting indiscriminately. One bullet hit my friend's work truck, missing him by inches. He had to submit a report because of the bullet holes in his truck. His report said the chaser did the shooting, not the person being chased. He had no idea the chaser was an undercover cop. His report (about the truck) contradicted the police report of the event regarding who did the shooting. The next day at work my friend was told to resubmit his report, and to identify the person being chased as the shooter. He said no, because it wasn't true. He was then told there was a call from the police union to the head of his department, saying that if the report wasn't changed, the police would no longer support his department (police are often needed to help secure an area where repairs are being done). My friend was told if he didn't change his report, he would be fired and his pension would be in jeopardy. He ended up cashing out his pension and quitting. The police know how to protect their own.
My F500 employer has on-site requirements. Colleagues and I sad-laugh because we all commute into the office, and spend most of the day on Zoom meetings with colleagues from other locations - you know, exactly the same thing we would do from home.
Conspiracy theory: Cops are worried about essentially being replaced by Flock cameras (if Flock cameras do, in fact, reduce crime rates, it's only a matter of time before the city council starts looking for ways to reduce the budget, and the police is often the biggest spend for cities), so they intentionally report slightly inflated crime rate data to remind the public: "See? Y'all still need us!"