I get what you’re saying, and I accept that reality for most of us here who already understand these things. But blaming consumers for corporate surveillance is not a good way to get corporations to stop surveilling consumers.

I feel this. A few weeks ago I was having problems with the headset I normally use for meetings, so I had to dial into the call on my phone while still watching the screenshare on my computer. When the meeting was over, I forgot I was still connected to the audio call on my phone, and I made a huge loud sigh followed by “ugggghhhh fuck this shit.” Everyone heard me and cracked up. I passed it off as me cursing out a different technical issue, but the people that knew, knew.

27 - Old enough that my eventual millennia of experiences can still give me the appearance of wisdom and maturity, but young enough to have a body that painlessly does what I want it to.

I would also ask the genie what their answer would be, but like, just out of curiosity, not to try to get one over on them. Don’t fuck with genies.

That’s totally fair and understandable. I hate the login too. But it’s a small annoyance to get to read their free articles imo, since you still have to pay to read everything. But that’s their entire business model. It’s expensive to do the shit they do independently, but I totally get that not everyone can pay or can glean the values of an organization without already being familiar with their work.

I realize I came on a bit strong, I just see a lot of people dismiss 404’s reasoning for adding that extra friction for their free stuff.

What, specifically, makes you think an independent media organization that reports on privacy, data breaches, corporate malfeasance, and the “dark” sides of the internet,would turn around and do that to the readers their jobs depend on? If you knew about any of the four reporters that founded 404 Media, or the incredibly high quality journalism they produce, this thought wouldn’t have even crossed your mind.

404 Media, as other commenters have said, are completely up front and transparent about why they require a login, and how much they dislike the fact that it’s necessary.

I get what you’re saying, but paying a bill before its due date is still paying that bill on time. I also keep track of my spending habits, and am completely on top of and in control of my finances. I just also choose to pay my credit card balance as I go.

I pay my bills on time every month. That’s only one factor for your credit score. Another big part of your score is credit utilization, or the amount of credit you use vs. how much credit you have available to you. So paying off my cards the way I described is how I keep my usage percentage at a minimum. I’ve seen big increases to my score since I started paying closer attention to that factor.

My checking account pays excellent interest, but my monthly cashback from my credit cards is always more.

I’m curious why you seem so opposed to some people choosing to use their credit cards this way? Your implication by bringing up debit cards and due dates is that we’re somehow not being responsible with our money, but that’s just not the case. I’m not attacking you, just curious why it seems to bug you?

Debit cards usually don’t offer cashback, perks, or robust fraud protections, and do nothing for your credit score. That last one is the important bit. I used to use my debit card exclusively, and could never get approved for any kind of loan. Once I started using credit cards the way I described in my other comment, my credit score jumped waaaaaay up and I started getting approved for everything.

Bugs the shit out of me when companies make it difficult to use their product. I do the same thing as you. I enjoy having $0 balances on my credit cards, and I use them within my means, so I pay them off straight away throughout the billing period. One of my cards (I only have two) makes it really difficult to pay off my balance more than once a month, and they delay those “extra” payments by days, sometimes weeks. I called them out on it and they said “just pay your balance once before the due date.” Fuck that. My other card lets me pay off my balance instantly, whenever I want.

“Estimate age from selfie”?! Wtf have we become…

When I was 14, I looked like I was 20. When I was 20, I looked like I was 35. When I was 35, I looked like I was 50. You can’t determine someone’s actual age from a fucking photo. Jesus.

I’m exclusively a very hot side-sleeper, so dialing in my pillow setup has taken decades.

I use three different types of pillows: a real down pillow for my head (this one was expensive, but seriously worth it), a faux down pillow for hugging (keeps its fluffy shape all night), and cotton-filled pillow for between my knees.

The fillings are what matter most to me, and the real down pillow for my head is the most recent and best addition imo. It has made a massive difference to my comfort over the memory foam one I had been using previously. I splurged for a Parachute down pillow because the high quality is immediately obvious, and it’s hands down the best pillow I’ve ever bought.

My mother died recently, and she was the breadwinner and was in charge of everything financial, because my surviving father is a toxic narcissist with zero financial literacy who refuses help from anyone. So I just have to say kudos to you for thinking about this difficult stuff. Your family will appreciate it more than you can imagine.

Other commenters have already given you solid advice, and I don’t have anything to add there, but more people need to have these difficult conversations and make real practical preparations, as soon as possible. Speaking from experience, not having clear guidance about where things are and what should be done with them, makes an already emotional situation even harder to deal with. Everybody dies, but in death you can make your family’s grieving process slightly easier by thinking ahead like this.

I’m sorry for whatever you’re going through, but props for thinking about other people while you go through it.

Yeah, this is what I came here to mention. Environmental damage and power consumption are what bitcoins cost, but those costs don’t give bitcoins any inherent value.

It’s actually a pretty appalling example of human ingenuity. We’ve managed to invent something that has a disproportionately terrible impact on every person on earth through its environmental effects, while simultaneously producing no practical value to anyone other than those wealthy enough to be in control of it.

Yeah paywalls suck, but that’s probably why their journalism remains consistently high quality. I listen to their podcast every so often, and it’s clear that they work their asses off. They just took their first week off since founding the company, because they were worried if they stopped constantly releasing new articles they would quickly go under, so they waited a long time until they were sure they had enough subscribers and had built enough trust to survive a week’s vacation without pissing everybody off.

I certainly don’t have that kind of work ethic, and I still expect my paycheck.

Yeah I still rely on fansubs for all my jdramas that don’t get official releases outside Japan (which is still most of them). The quality is instantly obvious compared to machine-generated crap.

Cultural context and an understanding of tone and narrative coherence is critical for subtitles if you want to do justice to the quality of the writing in the original language.

I use Alexandrite on my desktop and Voyager on my phone. Perfect experience for me.

I feel you. It’s very expensive to be poor.

Yeah this is why I’ve stopped using Craig’s List. Most of the listings, last time I was looking, were scams. I lost a few ”application fees” and was always ghosted. I’ll never again respond to an ad that has any fees whatsoever until I can see with my own eyes that the property is real. Hunting for a place to live sucks so much.

Yep, same here.

These immigration raids and terror tactics are terrible on their own, but it’s especially absurd when Native Americans get caught up in it, and it just fully exposes how disingenuous and transparently racist the whole effort is. So I’m sorry that your peoples have to suffer even more because of this racist mindset.

From a January article:

”If you can’t say, ‘we’ve been here for time immemorial,’ then you’re an immigrant. You’re not from here, so who are you to classify our Indigenous people? These lands have been a melting pot for many ethnicities,” Hatathlie [a Native Arizona state Senator] said.

I heard another more recent example of a car full of Native Americans being pulled over, aggressively questioned, and asked for their papers, but I can’t seem to find it. It’s utterly shameful how we treat people.