I have a smart home setup. I originally used a Pi. Unfortunately, it started to become unreliable after about 12-18 months. Apparently it quite a common issue with long term Pi systems.

I eventually changed to a small NUC. A bit less power efficient, but it’s been bomb proof for a few years now.

Having known people with PhDs, it’s closer than you think. It says more about people with PhDs however!

PhDs tend to be specialists. At the extreme end, they can approach idiot savants. Idiot savant is a relatively good way to describe an LLM.

I always knew he was an arsehole, but I thought he was at least a like minded arsehole, when it came to saving the planet.

The trapped kids incident also the first proper crack I noticed in his image. Now, I wouldn’t touch anything of his with a 40’ pole.

While Putin was likely acting on their interests, the current situation has gone completely pear shaped on that front. Putin is stuck. If he backs down, he’s dead, if he doesn’t win, he’s dead. He’s currently riding the limbo between those situations, hoping for a 3rd option.

If he died, the powers behind him would likely take the chance to disengage. The current situation is bad for business, and plans need to be re-thought. It wouldn’t fix things long term, but short term, they would likely back down.

It can depend a LOT on the existing family dynamics. It could be harsh as fuck. However it could also be a way to say both “stop being a drama queen” and “you have my support and my ear in whatever you do”.

You massively underestimate the complexity and fagility of the systems supporting you right now. Food, power and good production would basically collapse.

The biggest problem is the megacorps, they are too big to fail and so need to be broken up. The best way to do that is to make it financially in their interest to shatter themselves. Power law taxes would help both so it now, and keep companies from growing to that level. It also controls the speed of the change, so the supply lines we rely on remain functional.

Killing the goose blindly is just self destructive. We want to them to be able to die, but we need to reduce their size first. That way better options can take up the slack.

Answer me this. Collapse every company worth more than $1B simultaneously. What would happen to the quality of life of those at the bottom? It would be…bad.

One of the issues is that their value isn’t fixed. A billionaire as relatively little in the way of liquid (or liquidatable) assets. Their company might be worth billions, but, by taking it, you will destabilise it. Its value will plummet.

In order to access that money, you need to syphon it off more slowly. Think of the goose that lays golden eggs. Cutting it open won’t get you a glut of gold. The counterpoint is that you still need to collect the eggs!

In my opinion, we need a tax setup that forces individuals to regress to the mean. (Default is the rich and poor both move towards average when they are of average performance).

We also need to force companies to follow a power law. A few big companies, with the number growing as you move down. A tax setup that punishes forming big conglomerates, and so encourages more medium and small companies would be optimal. Have it adjust based on the overall industry. This both keeps industries competitive, and syphons money from those most able to bear it.

There is a huge difference between knowing what is needed, and how the fuck to implement it however!

I’ve not tried reflashing, but the os seems mostly vanilla android. I’ve had a couple of OS updates since I got my phone, so it’s not just fire and forget. I’m not sure about long term however. You might also have issues with the thermal camera, if you reflash. I don’t know how it’s wired internally, and whether a non custom app will play nice.

They seem to be aiming at builders/workmen as a rugged phone with long battery life. They also seem to be trying to build a proper brand, not just a throw away one. Hopefully that means they will at least do security updates for quite a while. But that’s speculation.

Oh, and it’s a brick, weight wise. I personally like that, but it’s quite polarising when people try it.

I got fed up with this and ran across ulefone. Some of their phones are downright ridiculous but I’m happy with mine.

It’s a waterproof brick with good grip and a 10,000mAh battery. Good for up to 4 days. It’s also got rubberised grips and takes a beating. Oh, it also has a headphone port, and thermal imaging.

I refer to it as the tolerance pact. I’ll tolerate the weird things you do, so long as they don’t significantly affect the unwilling. In return, I expect you to tolerate the same from my weird stuff.

There’s also a slightly weaker addition where I will help stand up for those that are both under the pact and under attack. (“They came for…”)

Nazis and an alarming section of the political right are breaking that pact. They are void of protection by it.

That racks with what it looks like from here. It was also a perfect storm of events to cause it. The old wanted the glory of the empire back. The young were lashing out at the PM for unrelated reasons. Enough of the middle aged brought into Boris’ lies.

That combined with leave having an excellent campaign, while remain were lackluster to non-existent. Lastly, enough remain voters couldn’t comprehend enough people being stupid enough for it to matter, and so didn’t bother voting.

The rich then latched onto it, and ran away with it. It let them both firesale the UK economy, and dodge some embarrassing tax rules Europe was bringing in.

I’m glad there has been some benefits to it. Even if they are just “look at what happened to those idiots, don’t do that!”

Given what it took to put that particular beast to sleep, a lot of leaders are nervous to wake it back up.

I agree something needs to be done, but the idea of a militant Europe again is a worrying thought.

It has taught a lot of Brits how good being in the EU was (by taking away the benefits). All the “advantages” have also evaporated like pixy dust.

In the words of Dr house “people lie”. They should take the woman’s word on things like this. However, it just takes being burnt once or twice, to not trust the answer from anyone else.

Depending on the location (mostly motorway services), I will often do something else before picking up food. E.g. go wash my hands properly. I’ve been known to misjudge the time required and be a minute or 2 late. Sometimes the wait can be long enough that I will go sit down for a bit. Again, I sometimes misjudge.

There’s a fun chess game on steam this comic keeps reminding me of.

5D Chess, with multiverse time travel

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1349230/5D_Chess_With_Multiverse_Time_Travel/

It basically allows for moves similar to this. It also creates coherent rules for jumping timelines, or time travel. It’s quite elegant how they come out, in a “my brain is melting out my ear” kind of way!

That image will stick in the mind of every school boy (and possibly girl) who sees it. That’s a win for the textbook.

A small group of idiots can do a disproportionate amount of damage. These men can’t get and keep a lady, so go on a disproportionate number of first dates.

It’s the same with the inverse, “bunny boilers”. Far more men have been on the receiving end than most women expect. For women it’s even more extreme. It takes a woman a while to build to that emotional state. The male equivalent can go bang after just a few messages, or a single date.

Half a course would be better than nothing. A full course would be best, but half is a LOT better than none.

The general way to make lasting changes stick is to support moves in the correct direction. Improvements are generally 1000 tiny steps, rather than 1 big leap.