That’s a nice way to ask if I’m a bastard. No, not the insult. Literally, someone born out of wedlock.

Sorry, I was distracted be the profits.

Textbook example is quid pro quo.

Similar sort of scattering happens in northern Scandinavia too, but I guess it's to a lesser extent. Most people in the region prefer to live within a 1 h drive to the nearest town, even if they are scattered. Proper hospital services might not be within that radius, but at least you can do basic shopping without driving the whole day. If the town isn't conveniently between two cities, you can forget about trains, and maybe even busses too. Having a driving license is absolutely necessary, because providing public transport in remote areas just isn't cost effective. Same goes for various public services too.

Just took a look at some population density maps, and I must say that the kind of density you have between Boston and Washington DC is approximately what most of Central Europe looks like. Other parts of USA are pretty sparsely populated.

Apart from the large cities, you could say that anywhere east of Dallas looks a lot like northern Scandinavia in terms of population density. Even Poland has a higher density than the gaps between major cities such as Phoenix and Denver. To me, it seems like nearly everyone lives in one of the big cities, and there's hardly anything in between them.

Not too long ago, I saw a map showing where each train is in USA. Someone also posted a similar maps from Switzerland. Can you guess which one had more trains?

Many of these piracy analogies are kinda weird. IMO the best analogy to pirating a movie is watching a football match from behind the fence. The stadium company isn't getting your ticket money, but you're not even the kind of person who would pay for that ticket anyway, so did anyone really lose anything? When watching the match from outside the fence, you're not taking any seats, or bothering the paying customers. Where's the harm in that?

!leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world

I've heard this "year of the Linux desktop" thing for 20 years in a row, to the point that it has become a meme. Even if the recent events bump Linux market share up by just a single percent, I'm still happy.

So 2025 is the year of the Linux desktop?

According to the diagram, I'm usually neutral evil, occasionally chaotic neutral. IMO, these are the most cost effective solutions. Takes little time to do, and it's still good enough.

Here's a pretty wild idea that just occurred to me. Let's assume that Trump being a Russian asset is far from being the big picture, but a tiny part of it. What if some people have planned something much bigger, and the Trump administration is just one step along the way.

Maybe the goal is to make people rise up against a tyrannical dictator, and tare down the whole administration. Then, something new could rise from the ashes, and that's when you have a unique opportunity to design the whole system to your liking. Consider it a hard reset, where you purge every cache and memory. Well, who would design the new constitution and a new government at that point? Even if it's the people who do that, their opinions can be easily swayed, distorted and guided by social media. What if some people are just waiting for each piece to fall in its place.

Well, I have zero evidence for any of this, so consider it nothing more than food for thought. You could also use that as a prompt for a scifi book if you want.

Total Dissolved Solids?

I got two of these squiggly window wedges. They are incredibly versatile and handy when you want to keep a window open.

That is true. Well, I’m out of options. As long as humans are greedy and arrogant, there’s no clean way to solve this problem. All of my ideas involve using power one way or another.

Option B: Those who violate the treaty get chocolate pudding for dessert.

Can you come up with a better solution? It’s not a high bar to clear.

Advertise more and sell harder. Who cares what kind of trash the customers end up buying, because only profits matter.

has led to higher fares for passengers and lower earnings for drivers, while increasing Uber's share of revenue

Sounds like the steps 2 and 3 on the path of enshittification.

Check this new 0 W setup! It’s running pretty smoothly as long as you remember to add some oil between the beads from time to time.