ExtremeDullard

ExtremeDullard , 10 days ago to Privacy in [Resolved] Is anybody else having issues with DuckDuckGo and StartPage?

CoPilot, ChatGPT and more are unable to use the Bing services so in turn are also not working or not working fully.

That's sad, since one would logically expect any AI to get better if it loses access to Bing search results.

ExtremeDullard , 11 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Every time I drive by it, I get a little angrier...

Maybe the restaurant is infested with investment bankers for whom life is indeed to short. Maybe the sign is a secret handshake to tell other investors they're welcome in this joint.

ExtremeDullard , 14 days ago to Privacy in Is Privacy Worth It?

Privacy isn't a cutesy. It's absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, just like not doing stupid shit when you're a teenager, you get to find out how important privacy is years later when the stupid shit you did years before comes back to haunt you and it's too late.

The problem of course is that Big Data has made it exceedingly difficult and painful to maintain your privacy. Because of course the last thing they want is for you to have any. It hurts their bottom line.

Because of the corporate surveillance collective, in 2024, if you truly want to maintain your privacy, your life becomes significantly crappier than if you didn't bother. But that doesn't mean privacy isn't as important today as it's ever been.

ExtremeDullard , 15 days ago to Privacy in OpenAI and Reddit Partnership

Ain't you glad you gave Reddit content for free and they're reselling if for millions?

ExtremeDullard , 21 days ago to Privacy in What are the most private social media platforms?

I think privacy and social media are inherently at odds

It doesn't have to be.

I've spent decades online on Usenet, IRC, Slashdot and elsewhere before modern social media, and today on (some) social media sites, and nobody knows who am I because I've always been super-careful to keep my online personae and my real identity totally separate. It takes a bit of paranoia, but it's possible to have an online footprint that's watertight and completely divorced from real-life.

I have many, many online identities and none of them tie back to the real me. But Big Tech sure is aggressively trying to deanonymize me, and it takes a lot more care and effort than it used to to make sure that they never do.

ExtremeDullard OP , 21 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Euro bottles are so much better now

It's not just soda bottles here, it's milk bottles, cream, fruit concentrates... Anything in any kind of plastic container with a screw-on cap.

Actually the soda bottles are the least egregious examples. The milk bottles are terrible: you're 100% guaranteed to spill milk if you don't detach the cap.

ExtremeDullard OP , 25 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Astounding absurdity

Thanks!

ExtremeDullard OP , 25 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Astounding absurdity

With a scalpel and a bone saw - at least that's what the surgeon said - and because sometimes people are born with issues that need fixing later in life.

ExtremeDullard OP , 26 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Astounding absurdity

Plus, they very likely can’t sell electrical equipment that has had its cord chopped up and repaired

I did it proper. You couldn't tell the cord had been replaced. For the rest, yeah I know what you mean. That doesn't mean it's not crazy that the Red Cross should refuse free shit. My Dad lived through the war and the food restrictions, and let me tell you, he would have been outraged.

Next time, find a friend with small feet who would like to take it off your hands.

The funny thing is, I'm a clear foot taller than my wife, but my own feet have been shortened surgically a few years ago and are now shorter than hers, and I fit inside the machine just fine. But I didn't want the machine because I hate foot massages 🙂

ExtremeDullard OP , 26 days ago to Mildly Infuriating in Astounding absurdity

The only problem with that theory is, they didn't even open my box. I know that because the box still had the tape I closed it shut with. So they couldn't know I had replaced the cord.

Besides, it wasn't a shitty splice: I actually opened it and replaced the whole cord. You could never tell it wasn't the original thing.

ExtremeDullard , 27 days ago to Interesting Global News in Russia blames 'hostile' Baltic countries for split in relations

Three of the countries forced to be in a union for 69 years take measures to avoid being attacked by the country that forced them into that union after seeing it attack a 4th country that was also forced into that union. Gee, I wonder why they're hostile...

ExtremeDullard , 1 month ago to Mildly Infuriating in This shit makes me want to murder, some times

The less Google can figure out who you are accurately, the longer the ReCAPTCHAs get. For instance, if you run Librewolf with Resist FingerPrinting, you're going to eat a metric shit-ton of buses, stairs, bicycles and fire hydrants.

Captchas are maddening, they're forced labor and there's a special place in hell for whoever invented them, deploy then and maintain them. However, you should take comfort in the fact that if you have a really hard time getting past a particularly stubborn ReCAPTCHA, it means Google has a harder time tracking you.

ExtremeDullard , 1 month ago to Privacy in People Are Slowly Realizing Their Auto Insurance Rates Are Skyrocketing Because Their Car Is Covertly Spying On Them

All your anecdote tells me is that you have questionable ethics.

ExtremeDullard , 1 month ago to Privacy in Why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you - YouTube

SmartTube works very well. The problem is, it requires a Youtube account to have subscriptions, playlists and the like. That's a hard no for me.

ExtremeDullard , 1 month ago to Privacy in Why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you - YouTube

Actually I use Freetube with sponsorblock on the desktop and Newpipe with sponsorblock on Android. So I mostly don't see shitty sponsors anymore.

But my Formuler TV box - which runs Android - has some weird crashing problem with the default Newpipe player, so I have to use an external player (MX Player) which doesn't have sponsorblock, sadly.

So whenever I want to watch Youtube videos on my TV, I have to eat some NordVPN shilling - at least a little bit, just time for me to grab the remote and skip it - and I'm too cheap to replace the TV box.