This is my assumption too.

I consider myself a difficult person to target ads at because usually if I need something I’ll do a deep dive and research the fuck out of it before narrowing down my options. For example when I bought a cordless vacuum recently I checked wirecutter and project farm on YouTube before eventually settling on a brand I’ve never heard of based on the project farm video and the performance in that video.

Now, where this broke down for me and I started to question reality was a few years ago when I had a Yamaha street bike (FZ09) and I was coming up on my first oil change interval. I did what I usually do; deep research dive, checked forums, reviews, Reddit, etc.; what’s the best oil for this bike, do people usually use the 1st party “Yamalube” oil or do they go for something different?

It’s important to note that at the same time I had been watching the back catalog of motoGP races from the 2015-2019 era and enjoying a couple of those races each day.

Anyway, all of my research on the right oil for my bike’s next oil change led me to a couple of forum posts where I decided that “Motul 7100” oil was the best option for me, the climate I ride in, and my bike. I ordered it on Amazon and moved on with my week.

Later that week I realized that in the background of several of the race tracks where these motoGP races were taking place were massive trackside ads for… literally Motul 7100.

Now, sure it’s normal for motor oil companies to sponsor motor sports, but it freaked me out. It couldn’t just be coincidence! “I researched this thoroughly and made up my own mind!” I told myself.

Why didn’t I end up choosing Shell or Bel-Ray or Penzoil instead? Is it because I subconsciously conditioned myself to be willing to receive recommendations for that oil brand? Was it because of other people being advertised to who then recommended it?

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how it happened… but I bought the very same oil that was advertised to me even after trying to be as resistant to advertising and brand loyalty as I could be.

After that realization I’ve just come to the conclusion that advertising is bigger than any of us individuals. It’s almost not possible to resist it, because at some level, somewhere along the line, it’ll get you. Or it won’t 🤷🏻‍♂️

Not daily, but weekly or so.

My dad had a little leather zipper pouch with two or three nail clippers and files/blades in it; a small pocket sized nail care set.

I used it weekly when I was a kid (every time I’d visit his place), probably from 9-17 years old, and then he gave it to me when I moved out on my own, so I’ve probably used it weekly non-stop for about 30 years at this point.

Electronics are tougher as they just don’t last as long; I used a Dell 24” LCD from 2006 all the way until 2022, so 16 years? It even failed around 2015 or so (power supply died) and I ordered a replacement PSU, resurrecting it. That monitor was my PC monitor and TV in college, and just kept kicking.

They can leverage these terms if they want to. For example you’re also only allowed to have one account per person.

Wasn’t it the Terraria dev who got his account locked and they used that as an excuse as to why he was locked out of his account? They said he had too many accounts or something?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/terraria-developer-cancels-google-stadia-port-after-youtube-account-ban/

They can enforce arbitrary rules when they need to if they wanna fuck you over; just like cops.

Here’s the other fucking shoe dropping guys: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/chamberlain-blocks-smart-garage-door-opener-from-working-with-smart-homes/

People like to hate on React these days… don’t read into it too much. As always, it’s the person wielding the tool, not the tool’s fault.

No it’s worse than that. All iOS browsers need to use a Safari (WebKit) web view as far as I understand. So any browser on iOS is literally just barebones Safari with a different UI and possibly a different user agent.

In fact, until recently this was even worse as Safari on iOS enjoyed some accelerations/optimizations that the web views did not get to leverage; so for a while all iOS browsers were not only Safari, but they were slower Safari.

Yep, the new Bravias with Android TV or whatever give you a choice as a part of the first time setup that essentially disables all the smart features. I had the same experience.

Cutting Edge Engineering is one of my favorites. Basically an Aussie couple that runs a machine shop where they do very large repairs on parts for heavy equipment. Loads of lathes, milling, boring, welding, all explained and filmed perfectly.

Maybe not as bad as the others…

I’ve been a NOFX fan for about 25 years; still am.

Their whole Vegas shooting country music joke was really hard to wake up to & read as a fan. Also the ripple effect that had on the other bands playing with them; the shows getting canceled; it was all a huge shitshow.

Having said that, I’m sure NOFX themselves have done more fucked up things than that joke, but the timing and lack of sensitivity was really a gut punch (not just to the fans, but the people of Vegas and the victim’s families).

Yeah I feel the same.

So at least on an iPhone (I think Android does this too if I recall from when I had my Pixel 3XL) the payment uses a one-time use card number if you use Apple Pay; I didn’t have to sign up for an account, and the Taco Bell app only has my email & first name (pretty sure you can give a fake email too as it asks you to enter name/email each time if you have no account), and that’s it. The friggin’ Taco Bell app has less of my data than most apps actually.

I actually installed it as a joke (my wife hates Taco Bell), and ended up liking the ordering process, go figure… it’s fun for a once in a blue moon fast food order.

I eat Taco Bell occasionally and I do like their system. Order on the app, use Apple Pay/Google Pay to actually pay for it in advance; roll up to the drive thru and give your name; drive forward and get food.

It’s the most frictionless fast food experience I ever had ever had.

Sometimes the operator is in another state! There was an article I read a while ago about… maybe it was Carl’s Jr.? but they were saying that the drive thru operators were in call centers in states with a lower labor cost.

Not exactly uplifting, but “yay capitalism” I guess.

Nothing about this story makes sense; you’ve asked a great question. Isn’t CarPlay/Android auto usually manufacturer agnostic when it comes to the features included? Wasn’t that the whole point of it?

Chamberlain Group’s myQ Connected Garage service

Ahh yes, myQ; the service that is randomly up and down when you need it the most.

I had a Chamberlain myQ garage door opener and I hated it. I hated everything about it. It was slow, unreliable, the button doesn’t use a simple open/close contact for triggering the door (so you can’t easily DIY a solution with a relay board); and it just didn’t work half the time because “the cloud!”

$129 for 3 years? For what? For < 10 API requests per day? That’s insane.

Don’t most modern cars (the type that have CarPlay in them) also have programmable garage door buttons on the rear-view mirror?

Right on man, thanks for the additional context/info. Much appreciated!

For most of us, there is no difference though; you get what you get.

I live in a nice neighborhood but I won’t ever get fiber… we have underground utilities and this area is served by coaxial cable. There’s no way in hell they are digging up miles of streets to lay fiber; you get what you get.

My ISP latency is like 16-20ms but when sim racing it just depends on where the race server is (and where my competitors are). As someone on the US west coast, if I’m matched with folks in EU and some others in AUS/NZ, the server will likely be in EU and my ping will be > 200. My Aussie competitors will be dealing with 300-400.

It’s not impossible to share a track at those latencies, but for close racing or a competitive shooter… errrr that just doesn’t work.

The fact that I’m always at around 200ms for EU servers might be improved if we could run a single strand of fiber from my house to the EU sever (37ms!) but there would still be switching delays, etc. so yeah the speed of light is the limit, but to your point, there’s a lot of other stuff that adds overhead.

Just installed it based on your comment, and am giving it a shot. Seems nice thus far!

Unless I’m mistaken, don’t HomeKit compatible devices need to be local-first too? I remember reading that if I switch my Ecobee thermostat to HomeKit (via HomeAssistant’s bridge), it will use local control instead. It’s on my todo list but I just haven’t done it yet.

I think this thread about Ecobee and HomeKit was where I started…

I’ve used it on and off over the years; ever since 2004/2005 or so.

Firebug was amazing for web development back in the days when it was just IE, Firefox & Safari.

I recently built a couple of sites (for a sim racing community) and one of my users mentioned a Firefox bug. I fixed the issue but then realized I need to be more aware of Gecko specific rendering issues. I decided to use Firefox for a week on my iPhone (yes I know, still technically Safari) and my desktop, and I forgot how much I like it.

I also don’t love the choices Chrome has been making recently.

Firefox’s market share is so low lately when compared to Safari and Chrome that it honestly feels like the battle is already lost.

I share this perspective. I’m often told that I’m smart, but I’m really just normal I guess.

The more people I meet, the more I realize there’s a bunch of knowledge out there I have zero clue about and I realize it’s not about being smart or dumb; we just all have different strengths.