Trial balloon.

This character is the thin edge of a very large wedge.

I'm over 40 and slowing down with age, so I do 1.3 for most podcasts. I usually leave video at 1X but I'm generally doing something else at the same time like folding laundry or gaming.

Honestly, getting old sucks. Like, I used to play Lemmings a lot and hum the theme song to myself constantly. But I hadn't played the game in 20 years. I heard the song recently, and the tempo sounded twice as fast as I remembered, so much that I fired up emulators and whatnot to confirm... yes, that's really how fast the song is.

The song didn't get faster, I got slower.

Yes.

But here's the thing:

Reddit/Lemmy: those people have equal voice to you or me. Of course they can amplify that voice with sockpuppets, but still - one account one vote.

Old Twitter: those people have downmodded influence. Twitter knew everybody hates them and treated them like the garbage they are.

New Twitter: those people rule the roost, because they're willing to pay Elon $8/mo for a megaphone for their jackassery.

Simple: because they're cheaper.

Like, say you build a gaming PC that's comparable to a PS5. I think it would be extremely hard to come up with a combination of PSU, ram, mobo, GPU, CPU, wifi, storage, case, keyboard, mouse, and game controller that costs less than a PS5 and has comparable performance. Even if you picked entry-level components. And you still have to pay the Windows tax probably. And all of that was much more difficult than just buying a PS5 -- not everybody has the time.

Actually that would be quite new, since most of their land-grabbing actions have been in the West Bank, both the rural settlement communities and urban areas around Jerusalem. The Gaza Strip borders have been consistent for a very long time.

But yes, their current approach of levelling buildings and commanding Palestinians to evacuate does lead me to think they might try that in Gaza.

Huh, it thinks I'm off the grid because all my horrible privacy invading gear is Google, Samsung, and Philips.

I don't think anybody ever pretended that anybody else was flying Predator drones over Pakistan and occasionally hellfiring a camp. I mean, it's not like they apologize, but generally their reaction is "yes, we did that. What's your point?"

The truth is paywalled. Only the lies are free.

I have butt dialed 911 because of that. Total misfeature

That's IT. In software development?

Important stakeholder wants something: drop everything that's top priority.

High priority: we'll get to it next sprint, an important stakeholder wants something right now.

Medium priority: we'll get to it after all the high priority items are done, but we're getting an important call from another important stakeholder right now, we'll get back to you about timelines.

Low priority: you're starting to sense the pattern here, right?

Code quality, documentation, testability, test automation: lol

Iirc his original claim to fame was speaking out about "compelled speech" against bill C-16, which extended human rights minority protections to trans people.

The fact that media referred to him as an "intellectual" instead of an "anti-trans activist" has always been wrong, because being an anti-trans activist is what made him famous.

It was pretty generous for people who weren't buying loot, but selling loot crates in a slot machine was far worse, imho. You just know how bad that must've been for people with gambling addictions -- "here, buy 100 random pulls and hope you get the skin you want".