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Best SNL in a while: Kamala met Kamala
  • Fair enough!

    non-parasocial perspective

    Well-practiced impersonator actually meets impersonatee (who has ~49% chance of becoming like most powerful person alive) & both seem quite pleased about it, even some giddiness. Charming human moment

  • Get good.
  • I’ve had a similar experience and came to the same conclusion.

    I like to answer questions as if an adult had asked them and then provide the dumbed down answer after.

  • The future is now
  • “…for trying to understand sarcasm as an autistic person”

    “…for translation until I find DeepL“

    “…short circuiting negative thought loops”

    (JK, probably to do a bad job at something stupid)

  • How to turn down lunch with a fascist
  • Dear Sir,

    Thank you for your letter and for your enclosed pizza menu suggestions. I have given some thought to our recent correspondence about topping choices. It is always difficult to decide on how to respond to people whose culinary ethos is so alien and, in fact, repellent to one's own. It is not that I take exception to the general points made by you about pizza toppings, but that every ounce of my energy has been devoted to an active opposition to cruel fruit placement, compulsive sweetness, and the sadistic persecution of traditional savory flavors which has characterised the philosophy and practice of pineapple-on-pizza advocacy.

    I feel obliged to say that the gastronomic universes we inhabit are so distinct, and in deepest ways opposed, that nothing fruitful or sincere could ever emerge from a shared pizza between us.

    I should like you to understand the intensity of this conviction on my part. It is not out of any attempt to be rude that I say this but because of all that I value in Italian culinary experience and pizza-making achievement.

    Yours sincerely,

    What are the chances I had just sent something similar to someone advocating for pineapple on pizza?

    Jokes aside - dude was pretty badass:

    Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, and public intellectual. He had influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, and various areas of analytic philosophy.

    👑

  • I'm just trying to buy a hoodie
  • Let’s say everyone used an identity verification service to signup, like had to send photos of their ID and their SSN (national identity number) to be vetted by a third party.

    How long after the service got popular would it take for the most aggressive marketers to pay rings of fraudsters to lend their identities and/or make fake reviews?

    I think it would definitely start out great until it got big enough to be super useful and then the fraud would ramp up. I think an organization like Consumer Reports has a chance at successfully maintaining a low-bias product database, but the paywall is a big obstacle, as is the fact they’ll only review the largest product catalogs.

  • Don't set an iced coffee on the Apple Campus model at the Apple (Park Visitor Center) Store. Immediately without a word, an employee might remove it and place it on the ground.

    💩posting after a 5+ year-old memory came to mind. The face of the employee I’d been chatting with (before momentarily freeing my hand) was positively aghast. Olympic contender in no-coaster defense competitions, guarding the impervious exterior of large corporate marketing assets like it’s the Mona Lisa.

    “OBVIOUSLY you’re not supposed to put anything on it!” -my friend

    (A little context - I would hope to be described as deferential and polite, occasionally even to a fault.) Oops

    0
    So telesyncs are still a thing?

    Looks like the new Beetlejuice movie was released as a telesync. I thought they were a thing of the past!

    8
    Would you sacrifice pro-trans campaigning for a Democrat win?

    COMMUNITY/MODS: want this post gone, it’s gone - would remove ASAP.

    Please be excellent to each other here. We have to self moderate or I’ll delete without being asked. Assume good intent.

    ---

    I’m pro human which is why I’d rather have some people in office here in the US than others, and why I’m pro human rights.

    Trans rights are human rights.

    After reading criticism of the dems, this question resurfaced in my mind. I know we don’t have time machines, I know it’s easy to claim a false equivalency is being drawn. So note this question doesn’t represent reality. It represents a curiosity of a hypothetical.

    Trans rights are human rights! Thank you.

    PS: I hope neither this post nor its comments represent/produce any content that bad people will use to make arguments to further evil causes. Have I already erred? Yes I’m worried, I’m also curious enough to hit this post button here… gulp

    alt text of featured screenshot

    Imagine you have a time machine that lets you peek into the future, specifically the 2024 election. You can see two possible pathways:

    Pathway 1: Democrats go all-in on trans rights.

    They champion inclusive policies, fight for trans healthcare, and actively challenge anti-trans legislation. However, this galvanizes the opposition and they lose the election.

    Pathway 2: Democrats stay completely silent on trans rights.

    They avoid the issue entirely, focusing on other policy areas. This strategy helps them win the election, but trans rights are left in a vulnerable position.

    The question is: which pathway would you choose?

    Would you prioritize a Democrat win, even if it means sacrificing progress on trans rights? Or would you fight for trans rights, even if it means risking a loss?

    21
    Cheap US cloud computer (VPN minus fingerprinting?): I need a social media account for a contract job, and want to register/login without the account tying back to me. Provider & spec recs?

    Hey friends,

    I'd like to:

    • Register for a social media account under a client's company name
    • Research the presence companies in the client's industry have on the site
    • Have a reasonable assurance the account will not be linked to my real name nor my network
    • Use a VM for 10-30? hr/mo, short term

    I am:

    • US West Coast based
    • Tech savvy but don't code (unless copypasta)
    • Price conscious
    • Privacy conscious in terms of social media companies linking my account and my identity

    ---

    Assumptions and Understandings

    Given the complexity of fingerprinting techniques, I am under the impression logging in to a remote computer and doing all this work from a browser there has one of the highest likelihoods of success. I'd measure success by not getting spammed with work-related ads, whenever I have to disable Ublock Origin at least. It seems likely a social network will know I'm using a remote desktop (based on IP and loading time/delays), but seems difficult for them to understand who exactly is using the cloud machine if I only use it for a singular purpose. I would hope data brokers aren't efficiently tying VM usage back to VM leasers.

    I understand a VPS isn't typically suited for GUI usage, and VPNs can leave me more vulnerable to fingerprinting.

    Finally, it looks like most of the low-end cloud PC options would support web browsing at a reasonable speed.

    ---

    Questions:

    • Have I betrayed any misconceptions?
    • Is a cloud PC one of my best options, and if so:
    • Can you recommend a provider and specs?
    • Is there anything I'm missing?

    ---

    Providers in consideration w/screenshots

    Caution: aggressive anti-privacy corporate behemoths below

    Azure Virtual Desktop

    Too cheap to be true? Requires some agreement...

    !

    Amazon WorkSpaces Personal

    Yay Amazon. Inexpensive.

    !

    Windows 365 Business Cloud PC

    Priciest option.

    !

    Vagon Remote Windows Desktop Cloud Computer

    A little guy!

    !

    ---

    Thank you!

    10
    So let's say I wanna ping 1.1.1.1... every 5 seconds... forever. Alternatives?

    Developers (two dudes) are super responsive and would likely release an IP customization feature upon request. Is there any service that would tolerate this [D]DOS-y kind of behavior that would feel more privacy friendly than Cloudflare?

    >IsThereNet [for macOS] watches for internet connection status changes and draws a colored line at the top of the screen to indicate the status.

    ---

    Edit: Thanks everybody!

    (1) ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) Echo Requests hardly constitute a burden on a server. (2) There is little privacy concern simply exposing your IP to Cloudflare. (3) Uptime-Kuma can be self hosted to accomplish this task with more bells and whistles. (4) There is an appetite for daydreaming of DDOSing bad Alphabetic actors ;) You civilly digidisobedient rascals!

    27
    Why do some folks insist they'll only listen to their doctors?

    Here’s a (very stupid) parody of the attitude as I imagine it from the most obstinate people with this view:

    >Well, my doctor says I need to take this medication, so that's what I'm going to do. I don't care what all those other people online are saying about their experiences with it. My doctor knows best, and I'm not going to listen to a bunch of anonymous strangers on the internet. They're probably just making stuff up anyway.

    >Sure, I get that a lot of people had some nasty side effects or didn't see any improvement, but my doctor assured me that won't happen to me. He's a professional, so I trust him completely. And I know he's only trying to help, not line his own pockets or anything.

    >All those online forums and support groups are just a waste of time. What could a bunch of regular people possibly know that my highly educated, experienced doctor doesn't? I'm going to take this medication exactly as prescribed and not ask any questions. My doctor is infallible, and I refuse to get a second opinion or consider any other options. Nope, I'm just going to blindly follow his advice and ignore everyone else. That's the smart and responsible thing to do!

    (Yes, this is extraordinary (and like I said stupid), and yes your doctor knows more than JoeRando420 telling you to buy homeopathic crystal suppositories. In fact I only have one user in mind writing this post, someone I forget who posted long ago about a condition I cannot remember. Hope they got better.)

    Main point is: why not let a large number of people who heard about a condition from their own qualified doctors help you at least scribble down some questions to ask your own medical folks at your next appointment? (But please avoid those crystal suppositories.)

    ---

    Edit: thanks everybody, read all your posts and they're all great points! Glad I posted here. Thanks for reading something at least 80% dumb :)

    31
    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)PA
    parody @lemmings.world
    Posts 11
    Comments 67