BertramDitore

I thought it was just me and my old iPhone, but I’ve also been having a lot of trouble connecting for the last few months. Since May, really.

My parents used to use AAA TripTiks to plan our trips. Granted this was decades ago in the olden days of paper maps, so I have no idea how good they still are, but apparently they still exist. Worth checking out.

I did a cross-country move about 8 years ago, and just planned each leg of the trip separately. I chose where I wanted to sleep, planned the route to get there, and then did the same for the next leg. There’s really no wrong way to do it as long as you connect the dots and go the way you want to.

I’m about to have this issue in about 10 hours. Are you older than 30? Cuz I really started feeling the pain after 30. I recently bought an awesome inflatable pillow that keeps my head upright, so I can maybe possibly sleep instead of just fidgeting and suffering through the whole flight. I feel your pain, internet stranger.

Also, constipation. It’s so hard to shit the day after flying. Most people don’t seem to have this issue.

It’s also one of the most breathtakingly beautiful buildings in the world. I dare anyone with eyes to stand under the oculus when the sun shines through and not be overwhelmed by its beauty.

The fact that it’s standing intact, pretty much exactly the way it was when it was built by the Romans, is incredibly impressive. They knew how to concrete.

Someone sticky this shit. Can we do that here? No? Well, that was an excellent answer.

Nope seems like you understand it perfectly. It’s completely detached from reality. It’s like saying “we know of no rigorous study showing that accurate weather forecasts produced a tangible increase in the number of people who like bagels.” Like, okay, sure, but no one thought there was.

That article really rubbed me the wrong way. It was a bunch of marketing people basically saying “privacy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be because it doesn’t make poor people rich” and “you’ll ruin the ability of small businesses to thrive if you don’t allow them to base their businesses on intrusive mass surveillance.”

The arrogance is astounding. If you can’t start a business without invading my privacy, you should rethink your business model. Just because surveillance marketing makes finding customers easier, doesn’t make it right. This part in particular is absurd:

Privacy can be, in some sense, a problem of the privileged. We know of no rigorous study showing that toughened digital marketing privacy policies produced tangible economic benefits for anyone, let alone lower-income consumers.

No, privacy is a problem for all of us, not just the privileged. To suggest otherwise is a deflection. It’s not always just about economics, even the working class have other things we value.

Wow, props to Castellucci for being a stand up person and not using their discovery to control or mess with tens of thousands of people’s power supply. And props to GivEnergy for not turning around and suing them after they reported finding the issue.

This could have gone badly in either direction, but we lucked out that this Castellucci seems to be an excellent and conscientious citizen.

Haven’t we always known this? It’s the same concept as a Stingray device, which is used to spy on people because their devices connect to it automatically, assuming it’s a normal cell tower. People don’t know what tower they’re connected to, so if you connect to a “fake” or exploited tower, you’ve basically handed over the keys. This is essentially the same thing, but on a 5g network, which is presumably made up of even more nodes/towers.

The justice system doesn't apply to corporations, even though they're people. And since the corporations are run by billionaires, the most peopliest people there are, the justice system definitely doesn't apply to them. Money = speech, and these corporations have the most money, therefore they get the most speech, meaning they have more rights than us normal people, and can get away with breaking the same laws that would get any of us thrown in jail.

/s but not really...

The interest rate is variable, it goes up and up and up. And to those suggesting I just refinance, oh I've tried. I've had three refinancing applications denied in the last month alone.

And any federal forgiveness would not apply to this private loan, so yeah, a decision I made when I was barely an adult will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Do not take out private student loans.

In 2005 the original balance on my only private loan was $30,000. After almost 20 years of $500 on time monthly payments, the balance is $37,000. Yes, you read that right.

This loan will be dragging me down, making my life difficult until I die. College wasn’t worth this bullshit.