If you’re paying $1,000 a month for your car, you have money to burn, or you have a terrible driving record and your insurance is absurd. We have two cars, each with a monthly payment of less than $300, and our combined insurance is $450 and includes two life insurance policies.

There’s no way we could afford to move into the city. First, there are more jobs out here. Second, the public schools are so much better than in the city. Third, we have space for dogs, a garage with bikes, a fenced-in yard and a creek.

I lived in the city for 10 years, and I do miss it. I miss commuting on my bike. I miss being able to take the subway home after a night of drinking. I miss walking to the corner bodega for the best fucking potato salad anywhere.

But when we moved to the burbs, the rent was $1,600 a month for our two bedroom apartment. The exact same apartment is now $3,000 a month in rent, which is more than my mortgage payment for a 4 bed, 2.5 bath on 2 acres (bought in 2018, before rates went to absolute shit).

The point is, I can’t afford to move anywhere because the cost of living everywhere is too high. For us, it doesn’t make financial sense not to have a car.

Because that’s how they want it.

I know this is a serious story, but that headline had me wondering when the war got to Walmart.

There are lots of reasons not to use ChatGPT (or any AI) but it’s silly to think the consumer subscribers cancelling their subscriptions will make a dent. The real money is in the enterprise contracts. They only have a paywall to set limits on the overhead.

You’re right. They add it to your homescreen without asking, and then one of the kids clicked on it. It’s not a terrible app, actually, I just resent having to turn off all the bullshit they keep adding to my home screen. Once I realized that someone had enabled it, I picked some images that weren’t too bright or distracting, and left it alone because I figured why not? Then I walk into the room where someone left the tv on, and it’s got this qr code across the bottom.

Thankfully, there wasn’t any burn in, but still. It felt like a “Beware of Sign” sign.

Maybe you’re right, but I’d be more concerned with being hit by a car. The fact that it is “illegal” at a minimum means that cars won’t expect pedestrians, and I’m less concerned about having the right of way than I am about discovering the coefficient of friction for asphalt first-hand.

I drove in Austria and Germany for work a few times. After a day or two, you pick up enough words on signs to understand “Entrance” and “Exit” and “One way”, but between the symbols and the English on everything, it is probably much easier for us to drive there than for a non-English speaker to drive here. I bet most immigrants learn “No turn on red” faster than “No Parking Enforced on Alternating Wednesdays and Saturdays except on Holidays from 6:00 PM to 12:45 AM”.

In any case, speaking English is not required of citizens. Tests were offered in Spanish because of a need for it. It’s not that they cannot learn to read a few signs, it’s that the written portion of the test needs to be clearly communicated. The ADA requires that illiterate adults be provided with an audio test or interpreter, because it’s more important for people to understand the test than it is for the government to bully immigrants to score political points with bigots.

It could be made safe, but it isn’t currently safe (especially considering the shoulders are probably still snowbanks). More importantly, it is illegal because it isn’t safe and scraping up pedestrian smears off the highway is traumatic for the people thay have to do it. It was made illegal instead of being made safe.

I’ll also point out that this circuitous route is estimated to take an hour while in a car it takes 3 minutes. If they put in a sidewalk, a traffic light, and a crosswalk, you could walk from that hotel to the stadium and beat anyone driving because they still have to park. But that’s just that one hotel. I would bet money that if you made the area walkable, you would see more hotels and parking lots pop up.

They built the stadium surrounded by highways and off ramps without any sidewalks and hardly any traffic signals. It is encapsulated by unwalkable roads.

Here is what Google Maps suggests for walking.

Thought?

UBI needs to be tied to an index related to the cost of living, which will result in compounding inflation (which can be a good thing, but that’s an economics argument not worth exploring). As a solution, it won’t fix anything by itself. We also need reforms like restrictions on corporate ownership of residential property, interest rate and banking restrictions, trading reform, and a progressive tax code that makes tax dodgers pay.

Vivre le France!

Combat always ages poorly, because anything happening in real time requires muscle memory. As developers develop new combat mechanisms, it is constantly getting incrementally better. It’s like trying to compare a modern performance car to a Model T, or an '89 honda accord. The 65 Shelby Cobra doesn’t have bluetooth or antilock brakes or passenger airbags, but there are many enthusiastic fans of the car today. The modern Shelby Mustang is essentially a remake with modern tech trying to capture the spirit of the original.

That’s what we want. We want Morrowind, but better. The classic is still the classic, so we don’t need that again. Modders can reskin the game with better graphics.

I can understand the appeal of a piece of bread that’s been soaked or buttered or even just toasted and salted. I bet that’s delicious, if done right.

My question is, why the other two slices of bread? What’s the thinking there? Why not have three slices of delicious middle bread? If the bread is good enough on its own, why not eat it alone?

It’s like if you made a drink of tepid water by adding ice cubes to a glass of warmed water and then letting them completely melt until room temperature. Who is this recipe for? “Oh, but maybe the ice cubes are flavored” OK then why freeze them before melting them? “Maybe the hot water is flavored with herbs that rele-” Bitch, that’s tea.

I’m so confused, I’m getting mad at imaginary arguments I’m having with hypothetical morons about analogous situations that only exist in my head.

Plumbing would still be a job without capitalism. Actually, come to think about it, plumbing is just about the least capitalist job there is. Most plumbers are small businesses owned by the laborers. Plumbing products are all mass produced, but the actual plumber is valued for their skills, not because they have the capital to corner a market. Plumbers in areas where corporate conglomerates are common are usually protected by unions, too.

If you want a job that wouldn’t exist without capitalism, the answer is farmer. Sure, farmers are the backbone of any society, but farmers work the land, and the land has a lot of conditions. But you can buy avocados in Michigan in January, because someone realized that they can make money shipping avocados from warmer climates year round. It’s terrible for the land, terrible for the environment, and terrible for local farmers who cannot compete in the race to the bottom, but the capitalist cares not for these things. Only profit nourishes the soul of the corporation.

Don’t forget to take your medication today.

No joke, ChatGPT has been a game changer for my linux education. Tutorials and guides are great, but it’s either a step-by-step instruction on doing exactly one thing, or it’s a general overview that assumes you already know everything.

ChatGPT doesn’t judge your gaps in knowledge, it just answers questions. Those answers are frequently wrong, but then so are the answers I get on message boards. The other nice thing is that I can copy and paste code or error logs, and it will parse the information and tell me what to look for.

I still follow guides and ask real humans for help when I need it, but I try an AI first.

I agree, but I can understand why BlueSky is doing better. A key component of the quality of the product is the number of users. I’m not active on either of them, but I do have a Mastodon account I barely use because it feels lonely.

Yep this is the only difference. Bluesky is promoted by the business owners, so it will have more activity and probably more consistent development and support. At the same time, it is a business and enshittification axioms still apply.

I did something similar with an old spare phone for a while when my actual phone screen stopped working. I carried both around, but I found 90% of my use cases didn’t involve phone calls or even texting.

I do find it convenient to have my phone connected to tailscale so I can access my home network from anywhere.

And I don’t necessarily trust public wifi.

But otherwise, I fully support this and think it’s entirely viable for most people.

https://lemmy.world/comment/21774208