So patents last 15-20 years… regular Blu-ray patent has already expired I guess, but Ultra HD Blu-ray is the current patent, releasing in 2015… so another 6 to 11 years before consumers can do whatever they want with the technology.

Would be outdated by then by the next new thing though.

OMG, I’m dealing with a developer right now that is dealing with patient collected samples in several timezones, allowing the patients to either enter the time they collected, or use current time, and storing it in UTC time.

We do not receive any timezone data, patient collection data is showing different days than the patient could write on their samples depending on the time of day, and the developer said ‘just subtract X hours’ (our timezone)… for which not all patients would live in.

I suppose I could, if they’d provide the patient’s timezone, but they don’t even collect that. Can you just admit your solution is bad? It’s fine to store a timestamp in UTC, but not user provided data… don’t expect average users to calculate their time (and date) in UTC please.

I have no actual list outside my head.

atm, Wendy’s because of their plan for dynamic pricing based on how busy they are, and ‘my local KFC’, because in 2017 I had to wait 50 minutes for my order (for 2), and they gave away the last of something I ordered to someone who came in like half an hour later, and they weren’t going to be making more. (that and KFC is way over priced for their standard menu if you aren’t getting some kind of ‘deal’)

All companies that plan to have dynamic pricing, please let me know.

I’ve already stopped going to Wendy’s; I’d love to add you to the list of places never to patron again.

Not surprised at all it is something the Trump administration was doing considering his rhetoric on the pandemic in general, and China. Awful all around.

You’re right, my ad blocker was making it look like an image. My bad. Basically a video of missiles being launched from land, air, and sea in mass.

Was hoping to see the video in the article, but just screen caps.

Was under the impression that Taiwan would likely use thousands of Ukraine style drone boats to sink the Chinese fleet.

Instead all I see is screenshots of missiles the size of cities raining down. I assume it’s a perspective issue, but those missiles are unrealistically large.

I keep hearing ‘sanctions arent working’.

And every now and then I see things about them working; it’s almost like sanctions are a long game that don’t immediately show all the results in want within 3 months, and you need to keep them up long term. That said, of course when some don’t comply with those sanctions, it will permanently alter the landscape as the sanctioned try to work around them. Russia’s movement toward the Yuan, and reliance on China and N. Korea are not going to be undone anytime soon, if ever.

Pre-Ukrainian invasion, 1 USD was ~78 Russian Rubles. Now, that 1 USD is valued at 92 Rubles. After the start of the war, the Ruble lost a lot of value immediately, but appears to had gained value for a few months, and has steadily decreased in value as the sanctions drag on, and seem to have semi-stablized at a much lower value than going into the war. As a generalization, it appears looking back to 2003 (max on the chart i’m looking at), as Putin’s leadership drags on, the Ruble has steadily decreased in value (in 2003, it only took about 30 Ruble to value 1 USD). Looking at other major economic powers in the world is like looking at an inverse chart, where their currencies have increased in value against the USD consistently.

A few years ago, wasn’t there a company (maybe it was uber?) that was being overwhelmed by arbitration fee’s for a large number of arbitration cases? I forget the outcome, but it may be due to their agreement stipulating they would cover arbitration fees. Either way, forced arbitration needs to go.

I do use passphrases, but I combine with randomness.

I memorize one random 8 character string to use with something more memorable.

Then when I need more security, or I feel that random 8 character string is no longer safe (password leak/hacked), I memorize a new 8 character string.

Then I combine them.

Then I memorize a new 8 character string and mix it in.

It’s a process built up over years that ingrains into memory. Sometimes I forget the order, or if i added spaces, or did no spaces. Luckily, as long as I am sure of the discrete segments, I can remix them to recreate until it works (in a reasonable time).

My last addition was when I made the move from Lastpass to another password manager, after their endless bad news.

To be clear, CA in this case is California, not Canada. But if you are on midwest.social, i’ll assume you are in the Midwest. More states need to adopt some kind of similar legislation.

For compliance with EU’s GDPR and CA’s CPRA, they should have some tools to remove information.

Whether those are available to you will depend on where you live, and the companies policy.

I feel like Little Bobby Tables has grown up, and should now be Robert’); DROP TABLE loans;–

Actually… I see your point.

Are they made of leather, or just… super fake looking low quality fabric?

All for reducing copyright to 25 years or less.

DMCA… I’m a bit fuzzy on the details, been a while, and the media mostly talks about DMCA take down notices. DMCA includes the clauses that prevent people from tinkering and modifying things they bought/own if manufacturers put any preventative measures in place right (including repairing)? If so, I’m fully up for revisiting that.

But never, NEVER, NEVER touch Section 230. And anyone attacking it is likely being disingenuous , or doesn’t really understand how Section 230 and the internet work (and are unlikely to write better legislation).

I project I keep up on uses Discord for chat, help, and announcements, but…

They maintain a full website for documentation, and use github for bug reports, issue tracking, project discussion, other project management.

I like discord being a part of the community, but I can cant imagine people making it the project management, or documentation tool.

I get people’s argument for results not coming up from the #help discord channel when searching Google, but I’m fine with how active the help channel is, and how searchable discord is in this case.

For those having trouble filtering to a specific channel:

In the past I would get full server (or multi-server) search. Its not happening now, but how I got it to focus:

Click inside the message input box like you are typing a message, then hit Ctrl+F. That would send me to the search box with “in #channel-name” to filter for only said channel.

The infrastructure will come. Beside the Infrastructure bill including funds to assist in developing nationwide charging networks:

A charging connector for all the major manufacturers to use has finally been settled on; it happens to be Tesla’s connector (now called the North American Charging Standard (NACS). They had a long while back offered all manufacturers to use it for free (still Tesla design property), but no major manufacturers took the bait as it may have terms attached; Tesla finally truly released it recently and it is now a standard: https://www.sae.org/standards/content/j3400_202312/

Tesla is opening up their charging stations to all (probably because of the above). For new cars, if you see one of those Tesla stations everywhere, like behind a target, or the side of some remote seeming parking lot, you will finally be able to use them.

Personally, I’m waiting for the prices to be more reasonable, and for solid state batteries (the safety and energy density/range to improve).

That SELECT and WHERE are all caps, but from is not is bugging me.

I don’t care if you choose to uppercase keywords or lowercase, but consistency please.

Also, great, love it.

While there are many other pressing issues about our democracy (from an American perspective), this is the strongest issue I take.

I can’t see things turning out well with Trump as a wartime president, particularly if he just keeps America out of important matters on the world stage (or worse yet, panders and sides with those who seek harm to America and the ‘West’. Let your allies weaken enough/succumb to your ‘enemies’, and it ultimately weakens oneself.