njordomir
@njordomir@lemmy.world
- Comment on How long do you think we'll keep seeing "formerly Twitter"? 1 month ago:
They really shouldn’t be allowed to name anything after a single letter. VW, BMW, ABC, TBS are all bad enough. X conflicts with too many established uses.
- Comment on Is it offensive for me as a man to dress as a male version of a female fictional character for Halloween?' 1 month ago:
I can’t see a problem with fictional characters. It’s when you bring in the real people that the drama starts. Trans JK Rowling, KaMANla Harris, Hillbilly Eilish, and Marjory Taylor Peen all seem like they would raise a few eyebrows.
- Comment on Why do cell phones have a data limit but home internet doesn't? 1 month ago:
My German friends and family don’t believe me when I tell them how expensive internet and phone is in the US. They all think it’s expensive in Germany. Having said that, there are some big differences in take home pay.
- Comment on Why do residential skyscrapers always seem to include balconies that never get used? 2 months ago:
Agreed. I live on my back patio when it’s warm enough. I’ve gotten called out (not in a bad way) on meetings for my hammock background. ;-)
- Comment on Why are peole hating on .world? 2 months ago:
I want you all to know that I’m happy you’re here, cis het white male frat boy from old wealth with an ivy league education or a neorospicy gay trans Jewish anarcho-communist and everything else out there.
While I won’t judge you on your instance, I will judge you on your ability to be a good neighbor. I’m always glad to see humility, kindness, empathy, comradery, etc. on display.
- Comment on Does anyone watch Google, Microsoft, etc the way Cop Watch watches cops? 2 months ago:
I’m surprised I didn’t think of the EFF despite donating to them before. Thank you for the links.
- Comment on Does anyone watch Google, Microsoft, etc the way Cop Watch watches cops? 2 months ago:
This looks really interesting. I try to get stories from varied sources, but don’t particularly want it “curated” for me. I’m going to add this to my rotation.
- Comment on Does anyone watch Google, Microsoft, etc the way Cop Watch watches cops? 2 months ago:
You got closer than I did. I didn’t mention it in the original post, but I also tried duckduckgo with little luck. I hope to god this is peak enshittification because I can imagine how it gets worse from here.
- Comment on Does anyone watch Google, Microsoft, etc the way Cop Watch watches cops? 2 months ago:
Yes, I tried Duckduckgo, but also didn’t get great results. Admittedly, I could have revised my terms a few more times, but I’ve had good luck with things Lemmy recommends, and this doesn’t really seem like a niche interest on this site.
Thanks for the recommendation on all the 3 letter agencies. I bet there are mountains of CSPAN coverage out there for me to watch.
- Submitted 2 months ago to [deleted] | 14 comments
- Comment on What can I do with US$10K that is a good investment? 2 months ago:
I’ll reply without knowing your situation fully. If you don’t have an emergency fund that would cover several months worth of expenses that is probably the single most impactful thing you can do with $10k. A few high yield savings account offer rates around 4%, some of them have strings attached, so read how it works carefully. Think of this as insurance against unforseen expenses that you might otherwise have to put on a card and consequently pay interest for. Pick a number and always make sure you keep that account at that number.
If you already have an emergency fund, you have lots of options. Personally, I am onboard with the folks recommending index funds. I have an ETF that tracks the DOW and it has outperformed most of my individual stocks significantly over time.
Most importantly, strangers on the internet are likely not financial advisors and may not even know what they are doing. Take everything with a grain of salt and if you talk to any investment companies make sure you understand the difference and overlap between a financial advisor and a fiduciary.
- Comment on What are the pros and cons to buying a smart watch from temu? 2 months ago:
So I already responded, but I’m seeing here that you are also a cyclist! I have tried a number of watches over the years and Garmin is absolutely the gold standard for fitness focused smartwatches. Some of them, like mine, only have buttons, no touchscreen, which sounds bad, but is actually amazing. Sure I can only choose from prewritten SMS responses, but I can get there with a few button clicks while riding (even on gravel). With my touchscreen watches, I used to have to stop to reply. The TFT screens also look better in direct sunlight than an LCD or OLED. So now, whenever my wife texts “where are you?” I can send a “out riding, love you” with only a few clicks. I also send her my GPS location when I ride in the road so she can have some peace of mind. I hear Wahoo also released a watch, haven’t heard much about it.
- Comment on What are the pros and cons to buying a smart watch from temu? 2 months ago:
Someone close to me had positive things to say about the Wyze watch as well. If apple and android are tier A, wyze is below that, but above all the F tier temu and amazon junk.
- Comment on What are the pros and cons to buying a smart watch from temu? 2 months ago:
As someone who has bought a fair number of smartwatches and fitness trackers and always over-researches every decision I make:
- See the rest of the replies for info on cheap smart watches. They’re basically a cereal box toy.
- Depending on what you need, the MiBand or Amazfit bands had excellent battery life and there used to be 3rd party apps for your phone that did a much better job collecting and displaying your stats than Zepp or MiFit (the official apps) did. I miss my 1.5 month battery life. Its also possible to use gadget bridge so it’s all 100% offline though I understand its still a bit more rudimentary than a corporate cloud-based solution. I remember the bands I got from them running $25-50 USD
- Used Garmin devices or previous gen garmin devices can be had MUCH cheaper than list price on Amazon or so. I picked up a Fenix 6 a few years ago for less than half of the $600 list price. I love the lack of touchscreen because the button navigation is absurdly fast and no mistouches! This suits how I use a watch much better than trying to put a tiny a 2x2cm touchscreen on my wrist. These are fitness watches, but some have a few smart features. Depends on what you plan to use it for I guess.
- If you are a nerd (a good thing) and want to contribute to a cool project, Pine Computers, which makes the pinebook, pinetab, pinephone, etc. makes a device called the pinetime that is basically a smartwatch that is open to the community’s hacks and modifications. I haven’t bought one because my biking depends on my Garmin stats, but I am tempted to grab one to mess with it.
None of these are fancy “smarts first” watches like an Apple Watch or an Android Watch. I found I needed less smarts than I thought as I usually carry my phone at all times anyway. It is nice to have the doorbell ring on my wrist and to reply to texts by choosing from a few pre-written responses while biking, or otherwise unavailable to text. If you really want a bunch of apps and integration with your phones OS, Apple and Android are the big two and its not really feasible to go 3rd party for the same experience.
- Comment on How do I avoid enshitification of my keyboard and mouse 2 months ago:
My wife balked when I bought a Ducky keyboard to replace the solar powered, Bluetooth DIS-connected, keys popping everywhere garbage I got from work. Once she typed on it, she never had another complaint.
- Comment on I need a Glassdoor account AND a review of a previous employer to see reviews on the website 2 months ago:
Your point about the small companies is valid, and it used to be better. When Glassdoor was at its peak, you could find smaller companies more frequently and I would read up on the companies I did business with to get an employee’s perspective on whether they were functioning effectively. If your employees hate your guts or think their job is pointless, that’s also a bit of a red flag for me as a consumer. This Glassdoor research worked well for renovation contractors, larger service providers like electrical or plumbing, commercial real estate management companies. Sometime you could also find info that made it easier to navigate call centers designed to frustrate you into giving up. It looks like someone posted a few alternatives and glass door stopped being useful for company research almost as dramatically as google became ineffective for other research. Someday soon, all we’ll have is the company’s marketing slop and any honest opinion will be buried and hidden into non-existance.
With regard to review manipulation, I knew a company with an abysmal rating, a real w2 farm. Said company would have bootlickers in HR and elsewhere post 5 star reviews to try to move the needle. They also asked people to rate them well after training had completed and everyone still had “new-job glasses” on. Despite their efforts, I think they were still sitting at a measly 2.7 stars, which is still way higher than the 1.2 they deserved. The 0.2 is entirely based on the availability of decent coffee in the break room :D
I don’t have interactions with many people from this company anymore, but what I have heard is basically “different people; same shit”.
- Comment on I need a Glassdoor account AND a review of a previous employer to see reviews on the website 2 months ago:
Thanks, levels looks really useful. This will help me fill some of the gap that was left after glass door enshittified and started data mining everyone’s real names and attaching them to their profile as well as pushing their “fishbowl” thing.
- Comment on What jobs in the US (Kentucky) Allow employees to wear whatever you want? 3 months ago:
Shiiiiit, those managers should be bowing at your feet every day for you allowing them to be in your forklift certified presence.
- Comment on Redirect to prevent back button 3 months ago:
This is why I have dozens, if not hundreds of tabs open. Usually I open links in a new tab so I can easily tab back to where I came from. Using a hierarchical tab manager makes this work better because when you’re done with the topic, you close the whole branch… theoretically.
This tactic also seems targeted at mobile users where it’s harder to break the loop.
- Comment on Ok so coffee is made from coffee beans. And beans are *also* made from beans. Why is nobody making, like, black bean coffee? 3 months ago:
My elderly relative in Germany used to drink Caro? Carro? coffee. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caro_(drink) Barely, Rye, and Chicory. Chicory, if I recall correctly is still in various things, including Fiber Snack Bars. I had to look it up since I didn’t know what it was and wanted to know if it was bad for me in some way. Turns out, as usual, I should be more concerned about the copious amounts of sugar.
- Comment on Reddit Undeleted all my posts and comments 3 months ago:
That’s a great idea, eat shit butthead. ;-)
- Comment on Smart sous vide cooker to start charging $2/month for 10-year-old companion app 3 months ago:
I like it. I’m going to start calling it that now. Why are we tiptoing around their corporate feelings? They forcing these things to become obsolete in contravention of what is best for the consumer.
- Comment on How exactly does one eat 1500 calories a day? 4 months ago:
Nice resource. I get good exercise and eat a lot of raw or unprocessed foods, but my portions are whack and there’s not a lot of consistency day to day. I’ve been wanting to clean up my diet for a while and I’m gonna add this to my planning document.
- Comment on I started to get these daily at random hours, even when I'm sleeping. Someone's trying to hack me? 4 months ago:
I have the same issue. I used the email when I was in Nigeria for work, so I figured it came from that, but now I’m not so sure.
- Comment on I'm in a promo loyalty program to receive text messages and to read their message, I need to download their app 4 months ago:
At least you can count on the guy making minimum wage to not upsell you.
- Comment on I'm in a promo loyalty program to receive text messages and to read their message, I need to download their app 4 months ago:
Yeah, I feel like the only person in my life who doesn’t have Chipotle, ChickFilA, McDonalds, Starbucks and a bunch of other apps on my phone. Worse yet, I walk in and order at the counter like I’m living in the distant past. :-)
- Comment on If I live in a red state, would it be better to vote for rfk to take votes away from trump? 5 months ago:
The funding gives them visibility though. Without third parties that people know and might vote for, there would be no additional challengers to point to when arguing for ranked choice voting or anything else. If there are no Green, Libertarian, Constitution voters, then FPTP loses a good portion of its luster.
Additionally, if enough people vote 3rd party, the big two may shift to win those voters back. We saw an interesting situation with the Libertarians and the Republicans this time around where the Libertarians weren’t going to primary a candidate against the Republican if the Republican met certain qualifications. If the Democrats lose even a percentage point to the greens in a tight race, they can possibly get that voter back by representing their interests to show that they are also green.
Having said all that, I agree that FPTP is a big problem and is strongly contributing to the toilet bowl death spiral American politics is experiencing.
- Comment on Firefox search box jumps focus to address bar 5 months ago:
Definitely illogical and judging by the comments here, its a number of us who notice. It’s odd, because they went through the effort to preserve the option of separate search and address bars.
- Comment on Google Maps tests new pop-up ads that give you an unnecessary detour 5 months ago:
The map in my head will be deemed content theft because it cuts into Google’s profits.
- Comment on Google Maps tests new pop-up ads that give you an unnecessary detour 5 months ago:
Totally feel that. I will go to extreme lengths to avoid ads.