My favorite stores in the mall in the 80s and early 90s were the Electronics Boutique, Waldenbooks, Tape World or Sam Goody, and Sharper Image. None of those thing exist anymore. When I go to the mall now, it’s 90% clothes and jewelry, and I’m just not that interested in it.

My kids like the rock/skate shops like B&C, Hot Topic, Zumiez, Vans… but it’s still just basically clothes.

True.

Also, there is a psychological effect of people either feeling excluded from a conversation, or suspicious that they are being secretly insulted when they can’t understand it.

If you use Debian-based linux (Ubuntu, Minut, others), Mozilla recommends getting the package directly from their respository rather than flatpak or other repos.

Personally, I saw a major performance increase on my low-powered laptop when I switched from flatpak to the Mozilla package.

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/4-reasons-to-try-mozillas-new-firefox-linux-package-for-ubuntu-and-debian-derivatives/

Back in the day, I used to grab any piece of paper, and then walk around the entire office with a slightly angry and urgent look on my face as if I was going to talk to someone important. Do a lap. Back to your desk. Job done.

I work for a company that does marketing, and they are seriously struggling right now because TV and Social media ads are getting more expensive, while at the same time becoming less effective.

Yes. This is true.

Because ads suck and people hate them. Whats the new way? Be good at what you do so people talk about your brand. Show up in searches when I’m looking for you. That’s it.

I still like it. But it does have two problems:

1. Post spam. There is no enforcement of the posting rules, and nobody reacts if they are reported. For example, I’m looking for a Volvo, and people post a Dodge but put every car manufacturer name in the listing so they show up in every search.

2. Scam fucking overload. Every time I post anything for sale, the scam traffic is overwhelming. I listed a car and got like 12 similar scam responses. Most appeared to be chat bots with no human behind it. Some surprised me by responding to my sarcastic replies.

But I still look there. The site works for the most part, especially if you use the search modifiers. And selling stuff works too. Sometimes you get murdered, but it’s rare.

Oh good. Because if there’s a profile of my advertising preferences out there, it knows that when I am forced to view an ad, I look away from the screen, turn off the volume, sigh dramatically, and say “Fuck <this product> right in the ass.”

Personalize away.

That was my thought. I’m not sure if it’s based in science, but I remember being a huge fan of Windows 2000 back in the day, and Microsoft pushed a final service pack that made it highly unstable in 2005, and refused to update/fix it. My theory was that they were trying to push everyone to Windows XP, but I’m prone to thinking the worst of large corporations.

Holy crap. Other people have heard of Discuit.

This was happening to some extent 10-12 years ago when I first signed up for Facebook. There would be an ad for Target and it would say “Your friend Jimmy Smith likes Target”. And then I’d ask Jimmy if he follows the Target account on Facebook, and he’d say hell no.

This always seemed shady as fuck, and that was before Facebook got much much worse.

Yep. I use either and both. They are both phones that work well and have annoying issues.

SmartTube Next if you’re on a TV device.

A coworker bought a Jeep and I said “Oh wow, Jeeps are great vehicles! …unless you drive them on roads.”

I test drove one when they first came out. The salesperson was telling me about the continuously variable transmission, and how revolutionary it was.

“It’s a new technology? From an American car company? In it’s first model year? Ok, no thank you.”

In order of use: Smarttube Next (Youtube client), JellyFin, Nebula.

Medical emergency, months of painful rehab, permanent disability.

I’m down about 30 pounds since last Summer, and it’s had sticking power. I went from a few pounds over obese on my BMI to a normal BMI weight (200 lbs to 170).

I’m a data-driven guy, and I started using a phone app where you scan barcodes, or manually enter your food and weight. I got a scale off amazon for like $10. Before I even started changing my diet, I just started entering everything I was eating and drinking. It was a bit eye opening. The calorie count was too damn high. Lots of carbs, cheese, and alcohol.

I didn’t follow any specific diet or anything, but I tried to keep my calorie count around or just under 1500 calories per day. If you’re trying to meet a calorie count and not be hungry all the time, you figure some stuff out. You can eat a lot of vegetables. You can eat a decent amount of seasoned meats. Pasta and bread are things you can only have a little of. Drinking alcohol ruins the day.

Anyway, sticking to the count, I watched 1-3 pounds a week drop off and stay off. It was very satisfying. Math. Data. Measurable results. I recommend it.

I liked that I could get loud bursts of static in real-time!!

Yeah, don’t do this, and you should be fine.

From the Description:

Jan - Google fired 12,000 staff including their head of health and wellbeing

Feb - Google said employees must come back to the office and share desks. Bard (Chat GPT competitor) launches.

March - Google gave data to the police to help prosecute abortion seekers after Roe vs Wade was overturned. And they fired multiple staff after giving birth.

April - Google announces cost-cutting measures including cutting back on staplers. Google, Meta and X propose an alliance to combat misinformation.

May - South Korea fined Google for anti-competitive practices and Google continued to sell climate disinformation ads (after promising to stop).

June - Google replaces it’s fired workers with “low-paid foreign workers” and donated to an anti-abortion Republican Committee

July - Google uses our data to train Bard and increases the cost of YouTube Premium.

Aug - Google offers staff an on-campus hotel room for $99 a night. And YouTube ads may have led to the online tracking of children.

Sept - Google Pixel Watches have no parts or repair program and Google Maps led a dad to his death over a collapsed bridge.

Oct - Google’s AI consumes as much electricity as Ireland and Alphabet hired an underqualified man (who didn’t even apply for the job) over a woman.

Nov - Google backs out of building affordable housing in the Bay Area and spent $26 billion to be your default search engine.

Dec - Google caught putting ads on adult websites 🌽 and McDonalds is using Google AI to test if your fries are fresh.