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This is the simplest solution that enables the behavior that I think most people who care enough to comment here want

Side note: I'm noticing more and more of these simple, hyperbolic headlines specifically of statements that public figures make. A hallmark of the event being reported is a public figure making a statement that will surely have little to no effect whatsoever.

Calling these statements "slamming" (a specific word I see with curious frequency) is so riling to me because they are so impotent but are described with such violent and decisive language.

Often it's a politician, usually liberal, and their statement is such an ineffectual waste of time, and outwardly it appears wasting time is most of what they do. I consider myself slightly left of center, so seeing "my group" dither and waste time rather than organize and do real work frustrates me greatly. Especially so since we are provided with such contrast from right of center where there is so much decisive action happening at every moment.

I know it's to feed ranking algorithms, which causes me even more irritation. Watching the brain rot get worse in real time...

It's all well and good until the MBAs get a hold of it... Technology doesn't exist in a vacuum.

This is very welcome as a parent in the USA. It is also sound legally, and was a long time coming. Nothing of great value is being lost and in a year users will have moved on to something else.

There are two positive effects here: 1. A company that is meaningfully foreign is losing control of a mass media asset. 2. Children and young adults are losing access to a product that is not good for them.

A country should not allow foreign powers to control platforms with so much reach--full stop. We do not allow foreign entities to own radio stations... Imagine how much deeper these platforms penetrate a person's mind, and how much larger their audiences are. We should all be MUCH more concerned about how these apps are stretching the social fabric (throughout the world) and how every society's ability to function is effected. I challenge anyone voicing discontent at this result to question whose interests they are voicing.

American manipulation of American minds... Yea! That's the point. I'd rather have someone with interests as aligned as possible with mine working for, owning and ultimately making business decisions at these companies. Regulation as appropriate to further align them.

Which leads me into my next point: I think that everyone here would argue that TikTok is in a class of its own with regard to very engaging short form content and rapid feedback feed training. I would argue that these attributes make it necessarily vapid and reactionary, providing little to no net benefit to either the individual or society to begin with.

If you disagree, what is the value of this product to the user and to society? Does it make people's lives better? I think that when the harms are considered, the answer to both is ultimately no. There are very well-documented negative effects on focus, happiness, and anxiety in children, which persist into adulthood from social media[1]. I don't think it can be argued that something that makes you feel good and connected in the moment but disconnects you from your immediate neighbors and friends and is highly correlated with mental illness is good.

Social platforms (TikTok included) are putting our children at a disadvantage mentally compared to previous generations and need to be more regulated. If these platforms (TikTok and other short-form rapid feedback products most of all) are of dubious value to begin with, what is the harm being done here?

Finally, I conjecture that we've only gotten a taste so far of how power can be wielded through these instruments. Even if Elon decides NOT wield his asset overtly during this administration, I believe we'll see more overt demonstrations of the power of social media sites in the next few years if relations with China continue to deteriorate and Russia becomes more desperate, with Meta clearly becoming less scrupulous.

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1. https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence

This is so obviously the nail on the head. Shocked how far I had to scroll

Bluetooth 5.2 was supposed to fix this issue. Indeed, my S22 phone with Jabra Elite 8s sounds great in calls.

MacBooks newer than 2023 SHOULD have better call quality. They have Bluetooth 5.3¹. Can anybody confirm this? I have been meaning to try pairing my earbuds with a floor model at a store and testing audio quality but's only to satisfy a curiosity for me.

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1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/111838

Neither are exactly a 1:1 replacement, but check out backblaze and syncthing. A combination (syncthing for device sync, backblaze for offsite backup) might suit you.

I was impressed with syncthing when I used it ~2 years ago and I assume it's matured since then.

A 1/8 chance of fixing a bug at the cost of a careful review and some corrections is not bad.

0% -> 12% improvement is not bad for two years either (I'm somewhat arbitrary picking the release date of ChatGPT). If this can be kept up for a few years we will have some extremely useful tooling. The cost can be relatively high as well, since engineering time is currently orders of magnitude more expensive than these tools.

Western American wilderness is different than Europe--it has very few human improvements.

Personally I'd love to see it retain that character and I think this is the wrong direction.

Imo if you want a European experience you should go to Europe.

The one counterpoint I'd like to make here is tat. Imo it's better to leave minimal high quality, long lived gear than soft goods that deteriorate over time that can make for a dangerous descent and produce a fair bit of garbage.

Sector67 is still healthy! They have a smart, incredibly dedicated and frugal BDFL who got them through some lean times.

I think in general it only works if there is a strong community / third place thing going. I always saw that as their biggest offering--a way to get out of the house without drinking or spending money. The making / hacking thing is just something to enjoy together.

Noctua makes some nice, slightly ruggedized 12v high static pressure fans.

- Amazing translations (this alone is a game changer)

- Language learning... The ability to improvise realistic conversations is huge. I can ask to talk about cooking a specific dish or a sport!

- As others have noted, refining documents similar to grammarly

- Looking for a product with extremely specific features (though it isn't very good at comparing yet)

- Searches that are too vague and complicated to articulate to a search engine or use exact matching ...

This is really all that's worth saying until next week