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So many websites do popups and it feels so anti-user. Maybe I get unusually annoyed, but I do not need a Gemini popup ad in Google Docs. Just let me do what I came to the website to do!

It's a feature offered in ChatGPT and other platforms, though probably gated behind paid subscriptions.

Getting opinionated replies about politics does feel less dangerous than the model shutting up completely when asked about past government atrocities. At least in the west we can freely discuss and criticize.

Another area where an American technology brand is losing to the Chinese alternative. Alongside EVs, drones, robot vacuums, solar panels.

I have been using Deepseek V4 Pro for personal projects and it has been great. I think the $20/mo GPT plan is still the strongest value, but only because you don’t have to pay API prices for tokens.

In 2024, the average American spent about $17,000 on taxes. Nearly $4000 of that went to the DoD, about $3500 went to interest on federal debt.

I think it’s fun to think about it in this way. I personally spend hundreds of dollars a month on war.

I second this. I’ve been using it a lot (with OpenCode) for personal projects. It’s intelligent enough at a tiny fraction of the cost of Claude or Codex.

You’re basically so petrified of bricking prod and getting fired that you refuse to even start on your first ticket. The catastrophic outcome is low probability and not worth fretting over.

Going out and risking embarrassment is the price of admission for leaving the house. If you do say something silly, you have the opportunity to learn from it and grow a little bit.

Those TikTok videos are usually fake or bait. 99% of people do not think you’re weird or creepy for existing.

Red is the obvious choice from a self-preservation perspective but not a moral one. You're seeing here in these comments that there are lots of blue pressers; they would all die. This creates a snowballing incentive to push blue: people dying is bad.

There's several reasons why someone might make the "wrong" choice, and reaching 50% + 1 on blue is way easier than reaching 100% on red. And sure enough, the polls I've seen have shown blue with a majority every time.

Red is optimal from a self preservation perspective but is also the antisocial option. Picking blue saves everyone.

It's also a country. Not sure what insisting we change our demonym accomplishes.

The problem isn’t the powers that be. A lot of regular homeowners fight new developments tooth and nail. And many blue states unfortunately give them a lot of tools to do so.

The difference is that public streets are public spaces. You necessarily have a limited expectation of privacy in public spaces. The government likewise already deploys cameras in public places to maintain a reasonable level of order on them.

If you want to put a camera in your personal toilet you absolutely can.

I actually touched on this in another comment below yours, using Asia as a specific example. Our crime rates are also much higher than those countries.

But while our surveillance is not as widespread as other developed nations, it is still quite commonplace. There are cameras everywhere and recording license plates seems like such a tiny and justifiable expansion.

People in the US also get angry at speed cameras or red light cameras, yet I personally think both are very rational things to want in busy areas!

Our public surveillance is actually limited relative to other developed countries because it makes people here uncomfortable for cultural reasons. You’ll also note that our crime rates are pretty high, especially relative to the surveillance happy countries in East Asia.

Regardless, I’m happy to take a results oriented approach here. Does tracking license plates make it easier to catch criminals? Does it make it easier to track stolen vehicles? I suspect cities wouldn’t be signing these expensive contracts if they didn’t see any benefits.

And finally, surveillance of public spaces is not inherently at odds with personal freedoms. Your mobility is not restricted at all, your core rights have not been touched. And you are always welcome to go live in the woods off the grid.

I firmly believe that living in dense urban areas with millions of others requires a reasonably limited expectation of privacy in public spaces.