Scottn1

Thanks for this.

Brings back memories of me being about 11 years old in early 80s when I got my first IBM PC, eventually a modem and that turned into me hosting a small BBS that got sort of semi-busy. But I only was able to have it active during the day and overnight so my dad would not know. I remember having to walk the long telephone wire across a room and down a hallway to reach the phone jack several times a day and then so excited hearing those connections coming in. What great times!

Then the $300 phone bill came in and my father blew his top and took my whole computer with him to work after that for a few months. Back then, a land-line phone call was charged by the minute, even if calling a neighbor.

Reddit started to become questionably relevant that I am even reading real humans anymore for me I'd say around 2021. Covid caused the internet "grift" of karm-farming, content creators shilling miracle products "they love", and hidden agenda posts with affiliate links to really take off. Slowly over time you'd notice fake sounding or off tangent type comments intertwined into threads. Some subreddits were way worse and some still felt pretty clean around that time.

But LLM's have completely and utterly destroyed Reddit. To the point of it feels like it is 75% FAKE conversations and/or astroturfed with only a FEW real people commenting anymore. Plus the LLM's have gotten so much better I catch myself sometimes wondering if a certain comment is from a real person or not. Just too much mental energy required for Reddit now to the point of I hardly go there anymore for anything other specific technical questions.

It is sad because it used to be a wealth of knowledge and community. All of /r/askreddit is just bot started ragebait questions, karma-farming or stupid hypotheticals now. /r/popular is just trashy. Constantly I notice videos that are sometimes 7-10+ years old getting reposted again like they are new, just to get rage conversation started again.

You cannot search for ANY product recommendations anymore. Fake "Hey I tried this brand and it was game-changing". No subreddit is safe. Look at /r/supplements now, it is full of those type comments to innocent topic starting questions that are also probably fake. Off topic stuff such as "xxx brand Beef liver supplement changing my life" when someone asks what brand of multivitamin others prefer.

Reddit used to have a few real cesspool subreddits one could avoid, but now I consider the whole site one. You can't even browse Reddit anymore without being blocked to download their app to continue. Old-Reddit now requires a login. Ads make it unreadable without a blocker.

Ugh. Just the worst of the internet all on display at Reddit now.

“ Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Don Hankey, Travis Kalanick, and Steven Spielberg, worth roughly $540 billion combined — had already moved their tax residency out of state before the measure”

Imagine being worth billions USD and rather than being a part of the solution to support the state that helped build your wealth, you spend your money to just get around paying your small share.

It is trivial for the wealthy to buy another house elsewhere and “move” their primary residence.

At what point into a presidential term does it become their actual mess? And is there evidence of a time delay? Because by that argument, the mess we are in would been caused by Democrats.

Not that simple IMO. If Trump was to rescind his own tax cut, he'd lose a large majority of his base as they feel even more pinched in the pocketbook than they currently are experiencing with the inflation problem.

I don't see a way out of this and I don't think current admin really cares. Loot every last drop they can for next two years to enrich themselves and leave America to burn with no money left for Social Security, bond payments, etc. The crowds with pitchforks won't have anyone to tar and feather as Trump will be too old/dead to face any justice and his rich billionaire family will expat to the billionaire utopia of choice. Along with Musk, Bezo's and Zuck.

When I was a young kid in the 80's I thought Steven Seagal was a real badass, and Aikido was THE best (and coolest) martial art. Watching his movies and fight scenes was like watching that video at this website. Effortlessly using attackers own momentum against them, snapping limbs and the principle of no fist/kick hits harder than the ground. I remember going to the library and getting some Aikido books and practicing the steps from photographs.

Then Royce Gracie with Brazilian Jujitsu and the very beginnings of UFC came along and completely upended the traditional glamor of movie star Martial Arts for REAL fights against opponents of all sizes (Early UFC didn't have weight classes). Most real fights end up on the ground pretty fast anyway and against larger/stronger opponents you want to be on the ground.

That isn't to say that a black belt in say Karate, or even Aikido wouldn't still be effective in a no-choice self-defense situation, but I'd rather be more proficient in Boxing at that point or one of the many other more modern fighting arts that have grappling as a core.

I literally just spent hours in January of researching all the commonly mentioned options out there and trying them for myself before deciding fully on Bitwarden Family. I was a KeepassXC user for years and had my family on it as well. For 2026 I wanted to be more modern and was tired of worrying about backups (like a teenager only having their passwords on their phone), as well as syncing and accessibility. Then spent many more hours getting everyone off individual KeepassXC installs and transferred to the Bitwarden Family account.

I am locked in with paid annual until Next January, but if I have to change again do to enshittification or changes made to, what I felt was a good open-source product and company, I am not going to be happy, nor will my family.

You forgot about the $9b bailout to Intel in August of 2025.

With the recent OpenAi deal with the government I am certain they would throw tons of money at OpenAi if it got real bad. But with upcoming IPO where they are expected to be valued at $840b, we would be a LONG way from them needing a bailout. Well past this current admin.

>The Speakman S-2251 showerhead, with the flow regulator pried out. Was 100 when >bought, 3x that now.

Holy molly! You aren't kidding. I literally have one laying around in my bathroom cabinet that I bought during Covid for, I wanna say, $60? I used it for about a month or two before I decided I liked my previous shower head better (Kohler Forté).

Also, I'm curious why it is so common recommendation across the internet to take out the flow regulators. Even see it mentioned in Amazon reviews. It is bypassing regulations and selfish. It defeats the purpose of everyone doing their part to cut down their water usage, especially in areas that really need it (Arizona, Nevada and California). I still have mine in at 1.75gpm and it rinses me fine. No one needs the Kramer "Commando 450" force.

LectroFan Classic - Portable fan sounds and noise machine (I have mine set to pink noise). Wife and I use it nightly to drown out distractions. Even pack it with us on vacation now for hotel rooms.

I recently upgraded the cheap plastic version to the robust glass one and feel so much better about having hot liquid simmering in it now.

> In fact, that's how it already is for me at my job now. I have a MacBook Pro. Windows is just another app on my laptop that I open when I need it, and close when I'm done.

How? Windows as a VM? Or is Windows VM hosted somewhere and you are connecting to it via RDP? Either way everything we mention with the dark-patterns and bloat still apply. Someone has to install and maintain the OS whether you in the VM or the host in your hosted elsewhere VM.

Or are you talking about hosted Microsoft apps on your Macbook? Where the icon opens the app elsewhere and you are just getting the interface?

I've met so many of these narcissistic dad types that I think they are either a) living vicariously though their sons as an ego thing or b) seriously think they are sitting on a winning lottery ticket and their kids will make pro. So they obsessively push the kids so they don't "waste their opportunity" and/or "don't make mistake I did and not take it seriously".

I have even felt that urge with my son at times when he was making Little League All-star teams each year and considered top 5 player in the league. But then you realize they are only 9-12 years old and playing on a mini field! So I relished in him just having FUN. It was so hard to be around those obsessive Dads when I was having fun practices.