No. Takes two seconds to open or close the tap. However, I do sometimes spend time daydreaming under running water so I guess it evens out!

I had issues with Manjaro and WiFi disconnecting. Also, Manjaro dropped hardware acceleration for video codecs. Eventually got too annoyed to deal with the Manjaro direction and moved to EOS. Everything is working fine barring a script to get the headphones volume to work (recognised as bass speaker in alsa paths). So far, EOS has been the set and forget type of OS for me.

Windows runs my laptop harder, uses more battery and the fans are spinning a lot of times whist it runs almost silent in Linux. I’ve settled on EndeavourOS which has given me a headache-free experience for my hardware (lenovo yoga pro 7 7840hs). Only keep widows for BIOS updates otherwise I’d have nuked that hodge podge of software melange.

If you’re really set on windows you could try tiny11 to remove most of the bloat.

Well, hello there Don Draper

The AI centipede era has begun

Yeah, completely agree. YouTube commodified a certain style, people tend to copy it even when they’re not great communicators, and the whole excitement akin to a Labrador salivating is quite undignified.

What about images sent from Japan? Aren’t they all pixelated by default? /s

There’s nothing more manly than eating a hairy butthole

Thanks for explaining. It’s interesting and outside metadata there could be a case for data being secure. However, this is the same company that lied and got fined in the EU when they asserted that they wouldn’t be able to link WhatsApp and Facebook identities. This allowed the merger to happen. Security and privacy being something that the average Joe doesn’t care that much, it wouldn’t be too much of a negative impact when they already have so much bad press on other matters. Finally, from an ethical perspective, I’ll give this corp a miss. Values don’t really align with my personal ones even if privacy and security were beyond reproach.

Thanks. Haven’t used them in like a decade so things seem to have changed. At the time, new phone meant your messages transferred automatically.

At the same time, even if Facebook requires a backup for the messages to show up, as the app is close sourced, how would one know for sure whether the app doesn’t harvest the private key anyway?

Thanks. I stand corrected. I was one of those that paid $1 for life when WhatsApp was a new kid on there block but haven’t used it since news broke that Facebook acquired them like a decade ago. At the time, you had a new phone, your messages would transfer. Dunno how it is today after all those years but seems to be similar to Signal.

Based on the stories coming up on Facebook and their lack of moral / humane boundaries I still won’t trust them not to have access to a private key when their app is so invasive. Their whole model is based on behind the curtain trafficking.

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted. How does all the data magically show up when you change phone which doesn’t have the same private key as the old phone? It’s like having a lock on your front door and giving the keys to a random neighbour. Most folks trade convenience for privacy or security. That trade is looking less and less appealing by the day.

Two main benefits/“public goods” from having your lives in a societal arrangement:

1. Having an educated population allows overall advancements that wouldn’t be possible where education standards are low. If the protestant dogma of “work hard and you’ll get salvation” was still prevalent in all groups we’d still be chiseling stones as that is real manly work. Intellectuality is still mostly frowned upon in the US. The whole purpose is to work less and enjoy living as the benefit of having basic needs solved for. Access to free education has plenty of positive externalities that we aren’t even able to quantify. Would the US still be engrossed in its culture wars or other wars?
2. Having a healthy population allows a sense of group and care for a country. Belonging to a country should mean that your fellow countrymen have your back in time of need. Father time comes for us all. How unpatriotic it is that people proudly wave their flags whilst letting their own fellow countrymen die from preventable causes or having to face choices such as living longer and getting bankrupt or let sickness fester until perishing. Not having free healthcare from an outside perspective is as unpatriotic as you could get.

The US seems a prime example of too much emphasis on GDP and limited focus on quality of life. I’d rather be homeless in Cuba than in the US albeit all wealth and quality of life indicators are better in the US.

Why stop at internet, stop using keyboards as they’re used to cause so much harm. And pen and paper, so much harm has been done by letters, books, messages. Slippery slope.

Internet is a tool. You can whitelist content to suit your needs rather than allow the floodgates of ad tech play with your mind. I remember the days before the internet. Bureaucracy galore, queuing for basic services, relying on the whims of some individual to get simple actions performed. It wasn’t fun. With today’s low attention span and low tolerance for boredom most people would have a mental breakdown.

It had more slow motion scenes than an Indian action movie. Shallow and cliché dialogue ripping off from the star wars universe. Snyder was plastered all over the credits. If this isn’t his cut then take the damn name off the credits. No matter how you cut it it’ll have the same actors, storyline, dialogue depth and in-your-face visuals. Snyder really is a subtle and sophisticated guy.