One of my initial gripes with Windows is it gives you too many ways to do everything.

Something I recently realized: QR code is multilingual, e.g., one can encode Chinese/Japanese/Korean text in QR code; probably because it supports Unicode-8 which in turn supports multiple languages. Some new thing I saw at CES: “Hybrid Code”, it looks like QR code but enhanced to also allow encoding of different types of data (e.g., graphics data, as opposed to just text for QR code). It will require new/different reader software, so not sure if/when it will become widely used.

Elon Musk drove more than a million people to Mastodon – but many aren’t sticking around The number of active users on the Mastodon social network has dropped more than 30% since the peak and is continuing a slow decline, according to the latest data posted on its website. There were about 1.8 million active users in the first week of January, down from over 2.5 million in early December. Mastodon, an open-source network of largely independently hosted servers, has often been touted as an alternative to Twitter. And its growth appears connected to controversies at Twitter. But for many it doesn’t fulfil the role that Twitter did and experts say it may be too complicated to really replace it. “Twitter, in its most basic form is simple,” Meg Coffey, a social media strategist, said. “You can open up an app or open up a website, type some words, and you’re done. I mean, it was [a] basic SMS platform.” There were about 500,000 active Mastodon users before Elon Musk took control of Twitter at the end of October. By mid-November, that number climbed to almost 2 million active users. “Right around that 5 November, it was a real opportunity,” Coffey said. “There were a lot of people who were scared, a lot of people who … didn’t want to be in the place Twitter was becoming. “I’m big about mute and block … and so my Twitter is fantastic. It’s a really wonderful place. But I know for a lot of other people it’s not. And so I can understand that they wanted to find a place that is less toxic or less harmful.” The surge in new Mastodon users continued throughout November, peaking at over 130,000 new users a day. The upticks often coincided with controversial decisions made by Elon Musk.

Reminds me of living in LA. California would be great if it weren’t for all the Californians.

@Doctor-Phibes LOL I created a ChatGPT version for my IT team. I just have it hardcoded to respond with "Have you tried restarting it?" to any input.

The Chinese did a bang-up job...

@Axtremus Their Marxist-Leninist ideology dictates that the the vanguard of the revolution and workers state must remain paramount and unchallenged. So Communist Party retention of political power must take precedence.

@Axtremus said in Finally - the GOP attacks spending: Democrats increase the deficit through compassion and ambition, through "great society" type social spending. Republicans increase the deficit throngh incompetence and being penny wise, pound foolish. E.g., cutting regulation and enforcement to the point where preventable crises metastasized and then $trillions need to be spent to deal with the crises. I'll bet you spent no less than 3 minutes figuring that out.

Everyone who thinks transgenderism is in anyway good or should even be permitted for anyone under 18 should listen to Jordan Peterson's interview with Chloe Cole, an 18 year old who is detransitioning after she destroyed her body from the age of 13 to 15 with hormones and a double mastectomy. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/319-transition-of-minors-is-malpractice-chloe-cole/id1184022695?i=1000591961656 It is heartbreaking, as well as angering and contemptible how the medical community engages in malpractice, deception, disinformation, and manipulation of youth. I hope she develops a massive and massively successful lawsuit against her doctors and the hospital. I wouldn't care if Kaiser went bankrupt over this.

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1612876977127493632

@Jolly That’s a valid point. At least they can service older Soviet vintage equipment laying around in former WP arsenals. More importantly it ties into the question as to what are NATO’s, and more specifically Washington’s, objectives in this war as this article from the Guardian points out: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/10/us-victory-ukraine-lives-conflict-war-iraq-afghanistan?CMP=share_btn_link

@George-K You mean the 2024 models haven’t hit show rooms in the Chicago burbs yet?

@Copper said in Tuesday Morning Snarky Caption Contest - Swearing-in edition: Clothes make the man. "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little on no influence in society." Attributed to Mark Twain.

@Catseye3 said in Glory Days: Kim Kardashian's butt reduction! What? Did I miss that?

Thanks for posting this, TG. Would it be possible to transfer this post to the Mildly Interesting thread for posterity?

TIL Drew Barrymore has a TV show.

@Axtremus The demo was done in a noisy, crowded environment… Don’t tell me…a helicopter?

@Mik said in The Leeches: To call people who banded together to exercise what power they had leeches is so far off the mark. I agree, but in my experience, conservatives and guys like Mr. CEO here have been the very first in line to call them losers, not understanding how the economy they so enjoy relies on those efforts.

I was just pondering yesterday that people with Downs are in some sense an apotheosis of the leftist ideal human.