Back 10-15 years ago a friend tricked me into trying social dancing (think swing, salsa, tango, etc.) by telling me we were going bowling. They drove so I could not escape. Turns out I like it and since it’s not partnered a lot of people come alone and if you can summon up basic courtesy and respect, many of them will dance with you if you just ask. Different dances have different vibes. Swing is wholesome and a bit retro-nerdy, salsa is more flirty and extroverted, tango is intense and deeply technical. I made thousands of IRL acquaintances and dozens of friends doing this over the years. I never went or continued doing it because of the people, but they sure made it worth going. I never saw myself doing or liking this until I tried it. Now I can’t imagine my life without and I seek it out in every city I travel to. I imagine other hobbies could be similar. You can find group bike rides for various skill levels. Maybe your area has a nature hike club or a mycological society (people who study mushrooms). Poetry slams can be surprisingly cool too. None of this is advertised well, but a great place to look is in the back of an alternative newspaper that covers music and art and stuff like that. Like the back back, just before the weed and escort ads.

I would be signing all my communications cryptographically and sharing a key in person so people can validate whether a message not delivered face to face is really from me.

I donated a few bucks.

I see the controversy in the comments section, but none of us would be here if it wasn’t for the work of the devs.

I remember internet forums in the 90s and early 2000s and I’ve played MMO civilization roleplaying Minecraft servers with IRL nazis, takies, fascists, etc. Some of those communities made 4Chan look like Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. From my own experience ml has “character” and so do beehaw and dbzer0. These cultural differences are enabled by decentralized social media. There’s validity to the idea that the sign-up process should capture more of these nuances. You don’t have to look any further than your own instance to find bad takes and imperfect admins and moderators, but they’re still the best of the best because they actually did it and the people talking about them didn’t. Maybe I’m uneducated on this and I’ll change my mind, but as it stands I’m cool until they force tank emojis on .world users.

I do think it’s good that this type of talk happens, as it allows instances to develop a reputation.

That’s a no go for me. I stopped going to the gas stations with the ad screens on the pump for this reason. I want to hear the whoosh of gas going in my car, not some fake-cheerful spokesperson trying to sell me stuff. Some spaces are just sacred.

Junkie Elmo is the correct character to use here. Why do we crave enshitification so badly?

I’m also untangling myself from Strava. I already got a few good suggestions to replace the features I will miss most, like the personal heatmaps. There’s something super motivating about watching my ride footprint expand to cover large sections of my city as my fitness grows and I get more and more rides under my belt. I also like the fitness and freshness chart they do. I have a few years of summer peaks and winter lows that provide a nice backdrop to the current year’s training.

The last straw for me was how close they’ve become to google. If I’m paying to use a platform, especially if I’m paying a decent sized chunk of change, I don’t want them to also sell my data.

Very true. The recovery info from my watch is always secondary to how I feel. Often this aligns well, but sometimes it does not.

Try thrift stores if you know what styles look good on you. There is a thrift store in my area that specializes in business clothes for women. They help people get jobs, but you can also just shop there. The women in my life swore by it.

If I had to distribute money based on timeshare, Minecraft would get 49.5%, Cities Skylines would get 49.5%, and all the other programs would be left to fight for the scraps because I play those games like it was a full time job.

“Them” in this case being the business owners, not the workers or the people their tech is used to oppress.

What a trip down memory lane. Back when Reddit was still a place worth visiting and not (or at least only partially) a steaming cesspool of fermented bullshit.

This is a good reminder. I recommend everyone grab their takeout data every now and then, but also, print out the 6 codes and put them in a safe deposit box, safe, bury them in a ziplock bag inside of a coffee can in your yard, etc. Hopefully it will be a waste of your time, but if you need them, they’ll be there.

Yes, that’s how I used to have mine set up. I used to be able to make whitelist for numbers not to record, but otherwise it would just do it automatically for every call. Too many businesses, people, and organizations trying to pull sketchy things. I’ve literally played these recordings back to companies over the phone when they tried to claim they said something different. They record for quality assurance. I record to avoid their scam tactics.

I was gifted a 4g router for my birthday or Christmas or something. It was the better solution for me because one plan gets me internet access on however many devices I attach to it where I would otherwise need a sim card for every tablet and laptop I use.

Yeah, bet this guy doesn’t go to the factory floor when his term is over.

Probably depends on the men. 100 Chuck Norris clones, no chance for the gorilla. 100 Ted Cruz clones, Gorilla will wipe the table with them.

I tell this to all my local businesses along the trails. Our local bike group has a good page on the various types of racks and I always give them the link so they don’t put in wheel-bender racks or some other inferior design. They’ll even hook you up with rack builders if you ask. VERY cool.

When Zuck builds his inevitable broligarch dick rocket, he should try to land it on the sun.

No mention of safety in the article. Does a manufacturer of this size have to do crash tests?

Also, this sounds like the Spirit/Ryanair of cars. Everything costs extra.

For years, I drove ~10-20 minutes to and from work. Mostly stroads and freeway. I could never justify buying an extra nice car because I didn’t use it that much. Same for a nice car stereo. I’d just listen to NPR and talk radio for news, traffic reports, and maybe a quirky story about some cultural oddity or eclectic artist. If I spend thousands on a sound system it goes in my house, where I live and vibe. Now I work from home, ride my bike everywhere, and a tank of gas can easily last me a month. My current car was purchased for about $20k. If my car died for some reason, I don’t even know if I’d be willing to part with 20k to replace it. I appreciate that these guys are building something for ordinary people and not another faux luxury lifted minivan the size of a garbage truck.

I can see a lot of retired people buying one of these to drive to their once a week bridge tournament or bingo night.

The quoted person saying “you can go 70-80 mph on some of these bikes” right after the author talks about class 1, 2, and 3 ebikes makes it sound like those bikes and not hotrodded electric motorcycles are the ones speed running the trails at 40mph. This feeds into the fake ebike menace they’re trying to build up right now. :-/