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Joined 2Y ago
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Cake day: Jun 14, 2023

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The youtube algorithm determined the following: people who watch the kind of videos in your history, are also interested in recording netflix shows. And it was right, because you are in fact interested in that (general) topic. This is another possible explanation.


The last time I bought a Mac was like 10 years ago, at an independent computer shop that specialized in them. The person at the register insisted on getting my personal info “because Apple needed it” but I didn’t want to give it. The person at the register very slowly sauntered up to their manager, had a long discussion, and eventually they figured something out because I suddenly didn’t need to give my info. It was kind of nervewracking because I was paying cash and I was like: what if I hand it over, and they change their mind? It’s not like I could call the cops, I’m the wrong demographic.

Anyway, whenever I thought about getting an Apple system, I remembered that experience and went with something else.


“Whoso pulleth out this tape measure of this pillar, is rightwise king born of all Home Depots”


You can usually find an invidious instance if you look through redirect.invidious.io. For example, if I try the servers for https://redirect.invidious.io/watch?v=aQsWzL7_RiI the 6th one down currently works.




Hey fam, I don’t fully share your perspective, but I respect it. Here are some thoughts:

  • as a student: if you want to be a leader in your field, you really should publish, and get your name out there, and talk to people, etc. However, if that’s not important to you, then (usually) you only really need to “publish” your dissertation. This may vary by field and university, and will greatly depend on your advisor. In the US, a younger faculty member will want their students to publish a lot (to increase their own prestige), though a more senior faculty member may not care as much.
  • I haven’t heard of people publishing under pseudonymns. But you could do something like: if your name is “John Paul Jones”, and you’re usually known as “John Jones”, then maybe you could publish as “Paulie Jones” and then go back to “John Jones” again after graduation.
  • in security they say “define your threat model”; what threat is it you’re defending against? Is there a threat that can take advantage of the fact that you are currently a student at XYZ university? I decided that risk was minimal. Is there a threat that can take advantage of an email that you published in a paper? I decided the risk of phishing attacks was real, so I used an email address that I only accessed on a “non-work” computer. etc.
  • once you graduate: a lot of people here are talking about “academics” and it sounds like they basically mean university-based researchers. But universities aren’t the only places where research is done. There are many industry labs that don’t publish, or only publish internal documents. Likewise in the US there are government-funded labs that conduct research that is not circulated; if you’re from .nl there may be the same in Europe.
  • similarly, you can use your PhD to get a good non-research job in industry or the government. A lot of times this involves understanding cutting-edge research well enough to apply it or analyze it, and keeping up with the state of the art. (i.e. you have to be able to understand research, though you’re not doing the research yourself.) These usually do not involve publishing.

Anyway good luck with the PhD!



I think many people see it as normal/expected.

Yes, that’s it. People born in the early part of last century (my grandparent’s era) only knew over-the-air TV which in the US included commercials. It was just part of reality, like billboards by the highway.


No, to get 69, you have to divide 14,000 by 202.8985507 first.


Before that happens, they will just use all that screenshot data to train their AIs.




Wondering if perhaps a prepaid sim card paid for using a prepaid credit card would do the trick?

I paid cash for a dirt-cheap fliphone and a prepaid Tracfone card to set up an account with SMS but near-zero data, just for these purposes. It worked for me for google last month, but YMMV.


I created a google account last month, using a new chromebook hooked up to wifi. It let me create the account without a phone number, let me install software etc. Then when I rebooted, it demanded a phone number because of “suspicious traffic”. (wtf?)


Yeah, but I still post links to Bandcamp, even though they’ve gone down that path. One day they’ll cross the line, and I’ll start posting links to other services.



One time I put in my card, but the pump couldn’t show me an ad because it crashed. My card was stuck in the pump. The guys inside tried resetting the pump but that didn’t work, so they said it’d be a week before someone came around to fix it. I had to cancel the card and get a new number. All because I couldn’t watch the ads.


I think getting this practice phased out would require a sustained social media campaign. Otherwise the MBAs just see mysterious fluctuations on their charts, and they’ll make up some vaguely-political theories about Millenials.


Still early in the enshittification cycle. It’ll happen eventually.


You say that ironically, but in the early days of Google its motto was “Do No Evil” and it promoted non-intrusive advertising. There was this sense that Google was a company of engineers and that you could trust them.

(disclaimer: I didn’t trust them.)




Well, if you want to be sure that Reddit deleted your data, the time to bring it up is now. Ask questions, contact journalists, demand answers.