manxu
@manxu@piefed.social
- Comment on U.S. to Review Social Media Posts of Student and Scholar Visa Applicants 2 weeks ago:
All that's going to do is make people create fake social media accounts that are scrubbed of anything that might offend the regime.
Or, you know, make the students and scholars go somewhere else.
I accept that countries need latitude in determining whom they want coming in, but it's a really bad look for the Land of the Free to get upset over a post mildly critical of a public figure.
- Comment on The Shady World of Surveillance Pricing (Ft. Lina Khan) 2 weeks ago:
That's been happening for a long while, now. Years ago, you could get different prices on Amazon if you went with a private browsing session. Granted, the barrage of trackers online makes this a lot easier to dial in for corporations.
- Comment on Senator Josh Becker, who represents Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Mountain View, says he opposes a bill allowing multistory apartment buildings near transit stations. 2 weeks ago:
Americans have so much of their wealth sunk in their real estate / home that they eye any change with deep suspicion and an eye on how it affects their home value. Surely, a 5 story building next to your ranch home is going to lower your home value, so it must not happen.
I think this is a dilemma that everybody in the Bay Area faces: you can universally agree that more housing and especially more dense housing needs to be built, but you can't allow it to be built near you because that drags your home value down. Even just a 5% drop in value may be all the equity you built if you are a recent buyer.
I guess a compromise might be to give people near these new buildings a property tax rebate as counterbalance. Also, instead of mandating parking, maybe you mandate that people moving into spaces designed to be near public transit not register cars there.
- Comment on Hertz, showing the difference between science and engineering 2 weeks ago:
I mean, why would a guy that started a car rental company know anything about radio waves?
Gotcha!
- Comment on Facial recognition error sees woman accused of theft 2 weeks ago:
"No one should find themselves in this situation."
No one would if the corporations making the mistakes actually faced consequences beyond, "Oopsie!"
Fine companies real money if they make an "honest mistake." They will make dramatically fewer of them.
- Comment on Every news result on duckduckgo links to MSN 4 weeks ago:
I remember when they switched map links to (ew) Apple Maps. That was a huge downer.
- Comment on Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death 5 weeks ago:
Just as a reminder: this is the man that claimed he could fix world hunger for a measly single-digit billions, then chickened out when people pointed out he had the money.
He didn't solve world hunger, and instead massively contributed to making the world a worse place.
The worst thing about it: he probably could have solved world hunger with single-digit billions of dollars. He just didn't care to do that.
- Comment on The Democrats’ One and Only Union-Busting Governor: Jared Polis 5 weeks ago:
He seemed actually okay until Trump got elected. But he's a multi-millionaire, so there was always the risk he was going to side with "his kind of people" before the rest of us
For instance, he had the case of Elijah McClain reopened. I only mention it because I hope a lot more people hear about Elijah McClain and keep him alive in their memories.
- Comment on The Return of the Pebble Smartwatch Is a Sign People Crave Something Unique 2 months ago:
Until we get actual sales figures, it's a little early to tell if people crave the Pebble. I do want one, but it's mostly because I saw the potential for app development and imagined the amazing things people would write for it. Definitely not because it's unique.