As somebody that currently owns a newer Honda and a 20+ year old one, its a mixed bag.

Yes, the safety features are nice (my car will alert me if it detects I need to break before I do). Yes, the convenience features are nice (I never have to worry about headlights on or off and “follow” cruise control is a must on road trips). I also love the electric transmission since I have a hybrid that give me instant power like having a turbo.

But I miss having a temperature gauge (the car will tell me when its overheating I presume). I also hate that the car reports in on my personal data and sells it to other companies.

Hondas recent merger with Nissan will probably make them worse too. So there’s that. I’m guessing next car I buy will be Toyota.

I had a VW Passat which is the same thing as your Audi, just non luxury version. That thing broke down all the time. I got rid of it after 5 years because I had to. I just couldn’t afford to always be fixing it.

I’ve historically stuck with Honda’s which are very reliable. My last civic was 20 years old when I moved on from it. It still works, just not reliably for long distances. My son drives it now.

People would always ask me when I was going to get a new car. I would say I’m always looking but I won’t buy a new car until I need to buy a new car. I’m thankful for not having the monthly payment.

People would just nod their head and understand where I was coming from even though they wouldn’t make that same decision themselves.

During that time I made a monthly “car payment” into savings so I built up enough money to buy the car I wanted. Since it wasn’t a real car payment the money was a good emergency fund, which I ended up needing.

I would add to the conversation with the questions;

Should all information be known? Just because something doesn’t need to be hidden doesn’t imply that it should be known broadly. It’s not okay for somebody to know what color underwear I’m wearing right now.

Is all information equal in value? Presuming one kind of data point is okay to be public does not mean that all data points are okay to be public. My address is public record (unfortunately) but that doesn’t mean my social security number, ID number, and passport number should be public as well.

I agree that it helped with adoption. In a way I wish they still had it so I could get my text messaging family to use a messaging app instead.

The flip side was, if somebody tried signal and didn’t like it and uninstalled it, then any SMS message to them from signal went to their signal account that they no longer had installed so they didn’t get it. You had no way of knowing so it really sucked.

I get that, and I’m sort of saying that. The only difference is that I’m not calling for profit businesses wrong. In agree that its a non sustainable model for social media from the users perspective, but it’s a very sustainable model from the company perspective.

But that’s why I choose differently now. And others might choose differently when the platform gets to be in a poor state.

The key here is I can’t make that decision for others. Now or later. If you want people to go to another platform, then build a better platform and market it better.

Nothing is “wrong” with it. Its just a different platform.

The “problem” is that its just a different platform. Nothing is really different. It’s like choosing Pepsi over Coke. Its a choice and maybe one is flavored more to your liking, but they are both full of the same ingredients and unhealthy with continual ingestion.

I haven’t used it either, because I didn’t like Twitter or X. Today I suspect Bsky is fine, because it hasn’t been around long enough to become toxic or to censor discussions etc… Just give it time, it will get there.

The issue most people are bringing up is that there are “better” platforms (i.e. fediverse) that aren’t getting any traffic instead.

I can understand this, but the flip side is that the voices promoting the fediverse usually arent very compelling either in voice or ease. Think of it like somebody wanting to buy a PC. One person says to get Linux (and arch of course) because it’s the best and you’re a fool to get anything else. Here, take it and figure it out. Another person says to get a Mac, because it can do everything you need it to do, easily and without work, plus has added features you didn’t even think about that seem useful to your life. And if you get stuck they have a genius bar to assist. So people choose Mac. Similarly people are choosing Bsky because it’s easy and straightforward.

My sister in law is vegan. She is the most normal person about it I’ve ever met. She doesn’t talk about it unless it comes up in conversation in a normal way.

She doesn’t proclaim it, because its part of who she is it isn’t the whole of who she is. She also understands that other people’s choices are theirs and she doesn’t need to convert them, or defend her own position.

When we have family gatherings, we try to accommodate with food offerings, but she says we don’t need to and always brings her own food and extra to share. This is important because she’s self sufficient and doesn’t expect anybody to adjust their life to match her choices. Likewise, between diets and allergies we as a family just always ensure people know what is in what.

These are just simple examples. My point being, I don’t think of her as vegan. I think of her as my sister in law. Be a normal person and its all good. If its not, then that’s not on you. There are jerk vegans and jerk non-vegans. Don’t be a jerk. Don’t tolerate jerks in return.

This is the true answer, especially for such a broad question.

You dont need to be fancy about it either. When I started I downloaded a years worth of credit card transactions and put them in a spreadsheet. I took the time to go line by line and assign a category for it.

Then I made a chart and could visually see where my money was going. On top of that I then calculated each category as percentage of my annual salary.

It’s very eye opening. Even things that aren’t an issue at least I now know that so don’t need to feel worried/guilty about it.

Alien Isolation is one of the greatest games. It does start slow, but they’re just setting you up for the nightmare ahead.

I got started with aliases on anonaddy (now just Addy). After using a while I jumped into using my own domain, this is the real game changer.

Aliases are great and do their thing, but owning your own domain let’s you move everything all at once if you need to.

For instance, when proton added aliases I tried it out. I just redirected my MX records and was done. I didn’t like how they handled the header data because it broke a majority of my filters, so I switched back. Again, a simple setting adjustment and done.

For the record, I’ll probably switch everything over to proton eventually, but at the time didn’t want to recreate my filters. It makes sense to have all email controls under your email provider.

This is exactly why I never got into Xitter or Mastodon. I’ve tried them, but it’s a lot of work sifting through stuff to try to find somebody you want to follow. And newsflash, I don’t find many people that interesting that I want to hear what they say repeatedly.

Whereas forum style I can more easily find content I enjoy, then also possibly enjoy the comments as well.

Neither is right or wrong, it’s just a different approach to online engagement.

The best move for management in this situation is to “promote” him, into a new role that segregates him from the rest of the team. No office space work in the basement thing, but something that makes him distinctly a different role/title, and physically gives him a small office down the hall.

It doesn’t sound like much, but any physical distance will be nice for you and others like you. It also removes depression when you know he’s the same role but not held to the same standards. Eventually all that crap takes its toll, and good people quit…or worse, they stop caring and don’t quit.

The saying one bad apple can ruin the bunch is very true in work situations.

There was a woman who was a retail store manager who just upped and left for the Congo. (Yes, really) Corporate didn’t fire her for a year. (Yes, really)

This sounds like something I would do. So don’t be too scared of losing it, there are others like you out there that would carry on just like you.

I must say though, the romantic in me sees this as a movie or book. Story of your life’s struggles and ups and downs, but the wallet keeps you grounded. You finally make it to visit his grave and a woman walks up, daughter of Arnold. Ends up being the love of your life.

This concept is very understated. We need more options.

Print out and laminate this entire post.

Plus references that it leads to the answer to the super secret nobody would believe, and untraceable riches to boot.

I agree that there is survivorship bias, but I disagree that its “just” that.

Things are made cheaper today, regardless. There are $400 toasters, but I guarantee that one wouldn’t last as long as a 1950s toaster.

Plumbing fixtures are a better example, as essentially you can’t find one that is equivalent of a 50 year old faucet, no matter the price. They just don’t make them like that.

Electronic components are another factor. First off, we stopped using lead in solder which results in weaker, more brittle connections. They just don’t last as long. True, we have advancements that make components run hotter in certain scenarios (so those connections get more stress) but even disregarding that the fact still stands it’s not as good.

Then we added those electronics into everything to make them “better”. Old washing machines were essentially all mechanical so they would run forever, and be easy to maintain or fix. Now they have computers running them that are designed to not be fixed.

Its hard to find a company today that wants to make a good product. They just want to make one that is good enough. Our culture has shifted to that mindset. Things don’t last as long, so we switched to a disposable mindset.

I remember when the EGAs came about. Damn, it was like stepping into the future. But I didn’t have a color monitor so it didn’t matter. I was probably more envious than your friend.

I’ll second the recommendation for GrapheneOS. One of the available options I use is to keep mic, camera, and location off at all times until I need them. That simple toggle ability changes your privacy stance greatly.