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 wouldn’t say Trump won the debate, or that it strengthened his position.

More the debate weakened Biden’s position strictly in regards to people’s view on his age and health.

Trump still said some pretty awful things. He lied plenty, but some of those awful things he took credit for, and if Biden was on his game that night, he would have in the past at least, demolished Trump. Problem being he missed those openings, and sometimes changed topics mid sentence from a strong point, to topics that people see as Biden’s weak points. (like abortion -> immigration)

Biden’s biggest enemy at this debate were unforced errors. Based on his performance at his rally the following day, and during past state of the unions when MTG and others are heckling him, he was clearly off his game, and I can only wonder what the debate would have been like if it was in the morning/afternoon instead of of late at night (or some other condition that got him back on his game).

It’s great his performance improved so much the next day, but that won’t be seen by many people. The debate was seen by millions, including many that normally wouldn’t be reached. This was his opportunity, and he sort of blew it. Reaching those people in another form with the modern media environment and media consumption will be difficult.

If Biden continues to run, those who consider abortion, democracy/avoiding fascism, or freedom a top issue, will still vote for him. I will still vote for him.

If he steps down, and Gavin Newsom steps in as the democratic candidate, I’ll vote for him. (granted he isn’t part of the Primary, and there are pledged delegates for others, but those people have either already dropped out, or would get crushed by Trump).

On the CNN side, my biggest complaint was the mics were not indeed cut at the end of each persons time. If I was undecided, I wouldn’t want to listen to two old men bicker, I’d want to actually hear their opinions and viewpoints.

They let it slip to some back and forth with both mics active at the same time on occasion. If they can’t manage that, then they shouldn’t get to host any presidential debates in the future. Luckily the next and last debate for this election is not them; we’ll see how ABC does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKBFdy4q85w

Short video of him guesting to review some political ads, after his endorsement announcement.

For a video dive on the First 10 minutes is about it: https://youtu.be/Fnb7Rup_J5I

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.

The boiling method, and using ultrasonic devices so far sound promising:

https://projectboard.world/isef/project/eaev062t-harnessing-ultrasound-for-microplastic-filtration

Neither method is 100%, and sadly even if it were, there is no way to avoid ingesting microplastics. It’s basically in all food sources at this point. Any animal, or plant have them in them, and those sources are going to be exposed to them; even rain has microplastics in it now.

I suppose the best way to actually avoid microplastics in the food chain would be growing plants in a greenhouse type environment (with dug up deep pre-plastic dirt?) only using properly treated water? For meats, I guess lab grown meat would be the way to avoid it, using plastic free (or less) sources for material?

I’ve actually been throwing out old spices in recent years, but maybe I should be saving them. Maybe they are the last vestiges of plastic free spices, and will be worth a fortune to paranoid rich people that want flavor?

… I had an IT tech from our old MSP tell me her knowledge/recommendation of ABP is what got her the job.

I knew her boss, and doubt that was the reason (probably more because she was cheap entry level labor), but that some people have that take in a professional setting shocked me. I don’t think your ad-blocker recommendation will ever be what lands you a job, but I do think it’s possible for it to be the reason you don’t get a job.

There is also a setting under Default Behavior to disable javascript: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-scripting

Which would then require you to allow it for each site.

I use NoScript for that purpose though. I’ve not delved into uBlocks configuration, but NoScript makes it pretty easy to only allow javascript from certain sources on the page (can easily select which third party sites to allow).

My typical recommendation would be:

Normie: uBlock Origin

Techie: uBlock Origin + uMatrix

Security Critical/Paranoia/Just Hate Yourself: uBlock Origin + uMatrix + NoScript

I use the last option at work, and the middle option at home, and the first option for my wife’s computer.

For me, a lot of it isn’t about ads, it’s more about the security risk of cross site scripting. Typically, if I’m visiting a site, I probably trust it, but I have no trust for people they sell ads to. I don’t mind sites I trust having a few non-intrusive ads, but of course that’s not the reason I use blockers; if a site has so many ads it is unusable, I just don’t ever visit it again (plenty of 'don’t show articles from ’ flags in my google news feed for this very reason. I’ll never know if you redeem yourself, because I will just never visit your site again.).

It’s definitely different for every person, and situationally dependent.

If you are as well off as Taylor Swift and get to choose… yeah, rent if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of home ownership. You’re rich and will be fine no matter what you do.

For everyone else, if you generally are going to work in the same geographic area (even if a bit of a commute) for the next decade… then yeah, if afforded the opportunity, buy. It’s better to own something if given the chance (in general).

Hard to say in this current market. I took a 0% down payment mortgage out a decade ago, have paid off 30k, and have 200k in fake equity. Fake equity as the valuation is real estate bubble BS, and buying now could result in a massive negative equity (putting borrowers under water) if/when that bubble bursts, but simple fact of the matter is, as the above poster mentions, as long as you keep paying the mortgage, you actually get some equity/own something.

Worst case, your loan does go under… you go bankrupt and end up… right back where you were if you were renting anyways.

The way I like to look at it, is a mortgage (fixed) only gets cheaper. A decade from now, you’re making more money, but inflation has devalued your income? Your mortgage principle + interest did not change in that time, so inflation has technically made your mortgage cheaper; whereas we’ve seen rents double, triple, or even quadruple in the past decade.

Note for the curious: While FDA and similar loans can get you lower down payments, what I used for 0% was a USDA Rural Development loan - only allows you to buy in certain areas (not metros typically), but you may be surprised what areas do qualify - check out the map, anything not highlighted qualifies - zoom on in, maybe that ‘small town’ a 10 minute drive outside the big city does: https://eligibility.sc.egov.usda.gov/eligibility/welcomeAction.do … even winning a bid on homes in the current market may be tough though…

The unwelcoming post title aside (I assume in jest)…

A single takeaway of my personal opinion from this series of polls is that Gen Z is comfortable with themselves, don’t feel the need to hide, and the older generations are following suit and/or the long fought battle for social change from the older generations have finally yielded an environment that people can just be themselves.

I’m 100% straight millennial (and thus didn’t have to deal with this struggle personally), but I can for sure say the general culture today, I would feel comfortable being out in, but in 2012… I would not have been. Still dealing with people I thought were accepting people falling for the the Prop 8 BS from… what was that, 2008?

Proud for having a generally more accepting and welcoming culture/society.

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.

Is that an economist url?.. yeah, no, not clicking that.

Typically the “financial type media”, are full of political opinion instead of focusing on finance. Very often bad takes, and over the years, I’ve learned they just aren’t worth a click, and my time.

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.