The Things They Carried is so beautifully written. The story On the Rainy River, about a young man struggling with whether to avoid the draft, had this which has stuck with me:

If the stakes ever became high enough - if the evil were ever evil enough, if the good were good enough - I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comfortable theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.

It’s an amazing future where a tech bro is literally using an episode of Black Mirror as inspiration for their product.

The headline leads with the producer but the story doesn’t give any details about him. Produced a lot of big stuff including most of Adam Sandler’s hits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Simonds

I can’t recommend a specific couch, but for what I call mid-range I think Costco is the place to go. They have lots of stuff online, but I wouldn’t buy a couch I couldn’t actually sit on first. In-store furniture is generally only available in between seasons though - the next time would be late summer. Oh, and there’s no delivery from in-store - the last time I bought a couch I just rented a U-Haul for a few bucks.

A movie called Space Mutiny. https://youtu.be/LibG5oW5yPM

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-delayed-notifications-workarounds-3480868/

I’m not the person you replied to, but what exactly did you intend individualist to mean in this context? When I look at individualism on Wikipedia, it seems to be a self-centered philosophy - ‘Individualists promote realizing one’s goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and advocating that the interests of the individual should gain precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one’s own interests by society or institutions such as the government.’

Our choices regarding security and privacy are always compromises. The uneasy reality is that new tools can change the level of risk attached to our past choices. People may have been OK with others seeing their photos but aren’t comfortable now that AI deep fakes are possible. But with more and more of our lives being conducted in this space, do even knowledgable people feel forced to engage regardless?

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be uneasy with how technology is shifting the meaning of what public is. It used to be walking the dog meant my neighbors could see me on the sidewalk while I was walking. Now there are ring cameras, etc. recording my every movement and we’ve seen that abused in lots of different ways.

It seems like the characteristics of my Android tablet doom me here - I was unique even using Chrome.

I just watched season one this year just before they actually confirmed season two. It would have been crazy to have watched it at the time of release - one of the most intense cliffhangers I’ve ever seen.

While I know that, I still interpreted this more generally as ‘beware of his mouth’ so it worked for me.

The butter in my pocket is melting!

I felt nostalgic and was playing Beatles Rock Band on my 360. The dlc I bought couldnt be accessed in-game or through my purchase history (which had a lot of content unavailable in it). Most other stuff was there it seemed.

A baby rabbit shrieking is much much worse. My lab found a nest in the yard last summer. She ran around with them in her mouth but didn’t tear them apart.

I wasn’t patient with this one and have no regrets. The base game was good but the dlc adds a lot of interesting gameplay options. Buying the complete game is a steal now.

“at no additional cost” - my bill went up nearly 25% in January. Their generosity is underwhelming.

Ah well - supporting the dev isn’t the worst possible outcome. It sure does make me happy to not see the Google ads regardless.

It doesn’t even matter if Gamepass or Xbox is currently profitable or not. It’s about whether it can be more profitable. They originally thought the path to that was through exclusivity - now they don’t (just as Sony changed course in regards to putting stuff on PC). Anyone who thinks that corporate decision-making is ever based on anything else is being naive.

The practical concern here for me is at what point does MS find it most profitable to stop supporting my ability to use my accumulated physical and digital xbox software. Another reason walled gardens suck.

I just got Projectivy Launcher. You need to get premium (one-time 7.25 cost) to set it as the default but it has some nice customizations. Works great on my Shield and a Google TV.