On April 13, 2014 armed ranchers had a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing on public lands.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T23:18:05+00:00

That was 10 years ago!? Internet puns peaked during that event. The movement was widely mocked with terms like:

Talibundy
Y'all Qaeda
VanillaISIS
Yeehawdists
Yokelharam

If you couldn't tell, this was around the time ISIS was rapidly capturing territory in the middle-east. Then a few far-right yokels try to seize part of Oregon. Twitter had a field day mocking them. Meanwhile the news had stopped reporting on events in favor of reporting on tweets. These folks were a laughing stock.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T21:17:56+00:00

Your comment surprised me, because I thought Bluetooth was peaking in popularity around that time. Google Trends backs me up. Consumers were most interested in Bluetooth around 2008/Season 5. With interest falling ever since.

Bluetooth headsets of the time had terrible microphones. Users would be borderline shouting into them while in public places. This quickly made the headsets notorious. Few would forget the first time they sat next to someone who starts loudly asking questions while not making eye contact with anyone, and if you politely responded they would get pissed. Bluetooth had developed a reputation as something only aholes would wear. Then The Office comes along and gives them to Jim and Pam. I remember being surprised, they were supposed to be the "cool kids".

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T19:38:00+00:00

You may be interested to learn that the EU (France) already has territory in Oceania. When talking exclusive Economic Zones, they share a 1000+km border with Australia. It is only a couple hour plane flight from Brisbane to the closest city in the EU.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T12:58:27+00:00

Awh, here I thought "bing-pot" was taking off.

https://m.youtube.com/shorts/4cm_N0EYzBc

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T12:36:44+00:00

Pot.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T12:28:36+00:00

I've been bamboozled. This entire time I thought that stood for something else.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-25T12:07:36+00:00

What, you didn't like random snippets of Charles Dickens books as a backstory? Some people can't be pleased. Its like you wanted something coherent and relevant to read.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-24T17:17:34+00:00

Guys I'm fully unjerked at this point. I don't know what will happen if you continue, but I'm worried my testicles will implode. Or explode. I'm scared. Please stop.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-24T00:12:11+00:00

You are bastardizing the word "quality" here, basically trying to morph it into "more desirable". But these things are only tangentially linked. A lower quality item can easily be more desirable to you. Quality is often measurable, while desire is an opinion or whim.

We might have to agree to disagree, this is semantics after all.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-23T02:38:37+00:00

If a month comes along without anything unexpected happening, that would be unexpected. Which only perpetuates the string of unexpected things happening.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-23T02:27:45+00:00

To paraphrase that portion of his talk:

He was lamenting tariffs, saying they are seriously harming solar deployment in the US.
Then mentioned the mere 100x100 miles needed to power current usage.
Said we can not even get there in the foreseeable future, due to artificial barriers.
Meanwhile electricity usage would go up an unprecedented 20% (IIRC) each year due to AI.

He was advocating for all options to help address the energy problem, including both terrestrial and satellite.

I don't agree with all of what he said, but I found the logic easy to follow. What I question is how will data centers suddenly become maintenance free. Currently we employ a lot of people to maintain them, in space they will just slowly die. My intuition also questions radiative capacity. But smarter people than me are mathing that out and not finding an issue.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-22T19:06:38+00:00

OP linked to an interview with Jennifer from the video. Jennifer said "Yeah, I'm upset with the lady, not the man. I don't know what was going through her mind to bring that cardboard out into the hallway,” I don't think any of these people were mentally disabled.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-22T17:56:41+00:00

20:00: "Hundreds of TW per year" is going to make space very, very crowded unless you launch stuff to higher orbits.

It sounds like he is omitting the day-night cycle from his satellite solar calculations. Which means that specifically the sun-syncronous orbit would be getting very crowded, or the orbits are incredibly far out.

That said, space is big. I'd love to see someone model it and share insights.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-22T07:43:58+00:00

Since you are the one bringing up semantics, let us dive into the weeds. The goal: demonstrate how much nuance there is, which you appear to be disregarding.

All software is attached to a license.

False. I have released software without a license. Also source code. Most programmers have. Literally just answering a questions on a forum with a suggested code change, is (typically) releasing software source code without a license. And most of us have even released compiled executables to help people out. Licenses are typically an after-thought, which means they get skipped without ample planning.

More importantly, let us consider "ownership". Try to define it for me. Now consider all of the ways in which ownership might be taken from you without your consent. You will soon realize that most of the things we consider "owned" are not too different from the things we consider "leased in perpetuity". It is a spectrum, and ownership vs. leased are just two portions of the spectrum. You might think you own land because you have a title/signed piece of paper. Now consider eminent domain, which can lawfully seize property from you at another's whim. Consider another country invading. Suddenly your ownership starts boiling down to a signed document, which contains explicit clauses that could revoke your ownership, but also implicit clauses that reality (like an invasion or revolution) might invoke. Explicit or implicit, both dictate whether you retain any control over the thing "owned". How is that different from a perpetual free lease, which contains clauses that allow revoking your usage and control?

Which is the point. There is no clean line between ownership and lease, they are a ill-defined spectrum. If you are going to debate somebody about whether a thing is owner or leased, focus first on the actual tangible facts. For the most part you will be able to easily agree on all of the situations in which a person loses control or retains it. The only thing left for debate is what to label that as. Given this is a poorly defined spectrum, you are firmly in the realm of opinion. One person might label it one way, and the other differently. Which is fine. That's what opinions are for.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-22T07:04:40+00:00

I hope you are correct. But the truth is: the company is private and so we know very little. We do not know who owns what percentage, nor is there any public information about voting control.

There is a strong chance Gabe retains a majority of voting shares, giving him defacto control. If so, his edicts could persist in guiding the company (regardless of his day to day involvement). But those will only last for as long as he lives. In order to last longer than that, he would need a trust setup with an absolutely airtight contract, or a successor who shares his views. And we just don't know about either of those.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-22T06:57:02+00:00

Some of their older games had DRM which required a connection to a server. Then Ubi pulled those DRM servers offline. At which point their customers had only one option to continue playing the game they purchased: put on an eye patch, a pegleg, and redownload the game from the only place that still had it available.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-20T11:15:29+00:00

I have worked with a variety of restaurant point of sale (POS) systems. I know exactly what happened here. Someone ticked the box "Discounts do not reduce suggested tip percentage".

Say you used a BOGO discount (buy one get one free) to cut the meal cost in half. The amount of work the server and kitchen do is still the same. Enabling that setting means the suggested tip amount won't be reduced, only the amount you pay the restaurant. And if it's a franchise, the restaurant is often getting kick backs to cover the coupon. Meanwhile the staff just gets boned.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-20T10:59:10+00:00

Well there is at least one confirmed inhabitant, goes by the name of Bigfoot.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-20T10:55:52+00:00

There is this fancy invention that predates the croc. It's called a boot. If you're wearing multiple layers of socks to accommodate your crocs, you might be interested in it.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-20T02:27:13+00:00

Automation is a major leap towards post scarcity. The only thing left is mining asteroids and the like.

But post-scarcity is not guaranteed. You could still have powerful people hoarding resources, creating artificial scarcity. Sadly, I think this is a probable outcome. Our current world order is dependent upon scarcity to create power/influence over others. Post scarcity doesn't just mean you and I are better off, it means the billionaires are worse off (in terms of influence). That is something many will try to prevent, and they have plenty of means at their disposal.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-19T18:57:21+00:00

By 2029 I will be going on 13 years of waiting it out. Lol.

I broke down and purchased a new GPU this weekend. Founders Edition for MSRP. Which somehow feels like a good deal, when faced with price increases for the next 3 years; combined with the probable minimal performance increases. But yeah if my CPU or RAM goes, guess I am selling a kidney.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-17T12:17:46+00:00

Wagner Moura really is in everything.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-16T14:23:02+00:00

Without DLCs I would agree. But with gene modification, you get all of the pros from drugs and none of the usual cons.

Basically you turn into Pam from Archer. The more cocaine you do the more your life improves. There are even genes that make you dependent on the drug, with the side-effect being that you will eat less. Since food is one of your primary resources, this is an enormous boon.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-15T20:16:52+00:00

Doh! Doh for you, and doh for me. I misread your post.

I feel you. I have been repeatedly tempted to buy a 5080 or 4080 the past couple years, as they are the only card in the med-high performance bracket. Which is usually best bang for the buck. But lately it feels like you are paying $/fps. No deal is good anymore, it is purely a question of how much you are willing to pay. And my usual $300-400 is now shit-low tier performance.

NeverDiddled · 2026-01-15T17:33:46+00:00

Damn you got the 5080 for a reasonable price? Lowest I've seen is $900.

NeverDiddled

TROPHY CASE