Momquist

It is possible to block web font request on a per-domain basis via an extension, even on Chrome. I have webfonts disabled by default for a while, and thought about building a whitelist of acceptable ones but have been too lazy to implement it yet.

uMatrix is definitely great for this. I consider it a request firewall at browser level. And it works very well at blocking everything (JS, CSS, image, any type of request really) by default, should you wish to do so.

It also allows blocking webworkers which mining sites tend to rely on.

> as long as they propagate our values and don't crush us.

There's a paradox here I think. If they propagate our values, then there's a very good chance that they will crush us. How do more "primitive" people fare in our modern world? Where's neanderthal? What about our primate cousins? Or even the other animal species in general? If AI really share our values, at best we might end up in a zoo.

> BeautifulSoup is great, but it's counterintuitive (I always need to refer to documentation even for very basic aspects that I've used dozens of times before) and it's often slow and has some really weird xml bugs)

I won't argue the slowness and the occasional bugs, but unlike you I find b4 to be very intuitive. And this is mainly why I use it, despite its faults. Maybe our use case are different, but with a basic knowledge of html, I only rarely find myself reading the documentation. Care to give some examples of what you find counter-intuitive?

> I mean why would a successful, well-adjusted "gentleman" even be in a situation where the best option for him is to live in a shared apartment with a woman considerably younger than him? Sure he gave her a reason, but well, he has to come up with _something_ doesn't he?

But isn't this your logic/rational mind kicking in? I think you're making my point that trusting gut feelings (a well-adjusted gentleman) isn't reliable, and taking some time to calmly and rationally assess the situation (the quick background check the victim's mother did for example) is a much better alternative.

You're right that being in a desperate need for a roommate, for financial reasons, may have been a major factor here. But again, psychopaths are manipulative and able to choose their victims and spot their weaknesses. Bachman may well have sensed this was a great opportunity, and pushed the right buttons (immediately writing a check).

Gut reactions to psychopaths tend to be the opposite: they are charming, and charismatic. Theres's a very good chance that you will like them, from the first impression. That's one of the traits/signs of a psychopath. That's why you shouldn't trust your gut, at least not in this case.

And the experiences of the victims in the article reinforce this point, at least in the first encounters: a courtly gentleman, he was very respectful.

That's assuming that someone recognizes which strategy was responsible for failure. Blaming the competitors, or the employees, is probably much more comforting and easier for upper management.

> But, at least for me, the industry has done a decent job of competing with piracy on convenience.

It has, but the fragmentation that you mentioned is starting to seriously erode this progress. If the situation worsens on this front, I can definitely see a resurgence of piracy, again because of convenience.