Out of curiosity… what do you use as a PayPal alternative? As a European without a credit card, it’s usually the only viable payment option for international online purchases.

I’ll check out Brave, it’s been mentioned a few times.

I don’t mind companies making a dime, but now it’s really devolved in bad results that are profit-driven.

What’s the best alternative, in your opinion? I’ve tried Bing and DuckDuckGo, but both showed me worse results for my particular searches.

I just want classic Google Search back, before everything got turned to shit. But I fear that doesn’t really exist since there’s such an economic incentive behind how search engines rank and show results.

That fucking AI thing absolutely sucks for anything factual. I’m a journalist and noticed that it gleefully listed all sorts of factual errors in that AI summary. Stuff that you can see correctly on the original pages, but it somehow manages to misinterpret everything and shows incorrect information.

And knowing how lazy people are these days, most will happily accept Google’s incorrect information as fact. It’s making me very, very nervous for the future.

And one funny addendum to that story is that someone COULD reasonably think that Pepsi had an actual Harrier to give away. After all, Pepsi once owned an actual navy.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PepsiCo

In 1989, amidst declining vodka sales, PepsiCo bartered for 2 new Soviet oil tankers, 17 decommissioned submarines (for $150,000 each), a frigate, a cruiser and a destroyer, which they could in turn sell for non-Soviet currency. The oil tankers were leased out through a Norwegian company, while the other ships were immediately sold for scrap.

The Harrier commercial aired in 1996. The Harrier jet was introduced in 1978. It wasn’t too unreasonable to think that an 18 year old jet aircraft would be decommissioned and sold, especially after Soviet tensions eased. And if ‘they’ let Pepsi own actual submarines and a destroyer, doesn’t that seem more far fetched than owning a single old jet aircraft?

Guy should’ve gotten his Harrier.

Ugh, I’m sure to hate that.

Google recently put Gemini in gmail, which lets you one-click summarise an e-mail.

Most e-mails I get and send aren’t nearly long enough for them to need a summary. And if I send a long e-mail, it’s for a good fucking reason: it contains essential information.

I should probably build in some check - like a really random sentence to confuse an LLM - to make sure the recipient actually reads it.

Yeah, we’ve noticed. Not that Europe is far behind I fear.

Literacy is definitely declining; people just don’t have the attention spans they used to. Between Twitter, TikTok and other brain rot, reading a book or simply a longer text just isn’t something a lot of people do.

If you don’t hate AI, you’re not informed enough.

It has the potential to disrupt pretty much everything in a negative way. Especially when regulations always lag behind. AI will be abused by corporations in the worst way possible, while also being bad for the planet.

And the people who are most excited about it, tend to be the biggest shitheads. Basically, no informed person should want AI anywhere near them unless they directly control it.

Yup. I’m very opposed to whaling - they’re magnificent creatures - but I’m not giving up my hamburger any time soon.

Honestly, that’s one of the dumbest sayings ever. It’s simply not true.

Money buys every item you need on your hierarchy of needs: food, shelter, safety, it increases your chances at a relationship, helps you realise your goals, etc. etc. And the more money you have, the better your needs will be met. Nicer house, better neighbourhood, healthier foods, more leisure time…

And that’s not even talking about the actual fun things it buys: LEGO sets, jet skis, a Ferrari, a gold Rolex. They might be material, but I’ve never seen someone depressed on a jet ski.

God I miss the pre-9/11 US, when the worst thing happening was bad jokes on SNL about Bill Clinton and cigars.

Uh, do the kids these days really not know about the post-9/11 Patriot Act?

Oh nothing too special; just a couple architecture and street shots around town. Got it loaded with some nice Fuji Neopan 400 black and white film.

Got a new camera in this afternoon! And since it’s a long weekend, I’m going to squeeze in a bit of photography, weather permitting. (And yes, I’m one of those silly people still shooting film)

Well then, I sincerely hope the place where you live gets better :-)

I agree. Kids should be fed. But that’s not the school’s job. It’s to teach.

The Netherlands has a robust social system. There’s welfare for people without jobs, there’s financial assistance for raising a child, there’s food banks, etc. Etc. And plenty of help getting into these assistance programs.

Basically, there is NO reason for a parent not to be able to feed their child. Even if they have zero money, there’s help. The only thing they (or the kid) needs to do is make some sandwiches to take with them for school lunch. That’s it.

Yeah, well, if a cheese sandwich was good enough for my grandparents and parents, it’s good enough for me.

We’re the tallest people in the world and I don’t think it’s humanly possible to be malnourished here, so maybe we’re doing something right :D

Yep. Our high school had a cafeteria where you could buy snacks, but none of the schools I went to ever supplied lunches as such. It’s basically the parents and kids responsibility to feed themselves. As it should be.

Maybe Dutch parents (used to be) much more responsible than those elsewhere. 🤷‍♂️

Having experienced math, I’d choose satanism for sure.

I’m designing the 3D-printable fleshlight mount right now. Hold your horses and give me ten minutes…