@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

flargh

@flargh@mastodon.social

Tech journalist, freelance writer and content creator with an IT background. Serial #Apple reporter/analyst/expert. Lifelong #gaming and #StarTrek fan. #80s music enthusiast, especially New Wave, synthpop and "college radio." Married with kids. Cat lover. https://mastodon.social/@flargh elsewhere, mostly. Personal account. 🖖

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siracusa, to random
@siracusa@mastodon.social avatar

I spotted this car on the road, and my daughter asked why I thought it was cool. After I explained, she said, “Why would a company name a car 9/11?”

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@siracusa Hah! I was actually thinking about this (sarcastically) the other day.

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

No-mow May is a great idea in theory but not in practice when the grass gets to be hip-height. Either that or I need to invest in a goat.

fahrni, to random
@fahrni@curmudgeon.cafe avatar

Gee, too bad we don’t have any EV manufacturers here in the States. https://mastodon.social/@buermann/112447762297466034

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@fahrni This is a facile look at the state of EV and the auto industry in general.

Reagan's voluntary export restraint policy worked half a century ago. But we're in a post-NAFTA world. BYD sets up manufacturing in Mexico, goes through NHTSA cert, blam, they're a domestic car maker.

Doesn't mean we're getting $10K EVs. The Seagull, for example, is a tiny car with limited range. Ask Nissan how its Leaf sales are going. Oh, right. Discontinued.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@fahrni And none of this addresses the biggest consumer concern over EVs: range anxiety and the woeful state of charging infrastructure and technology.

Until EVs have the same range as ICE vehicles are as convenient to use and quick to recharge as a gas tank is to fill, they're going to face uphill climb with the vast majority of American consumers.

There are good reasons why Americans are buying hybrids in record numbers but are tepid towards EVs.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@fahrni If Kei cars were legal in the US, here's what I'd love. Either that or a pickup in this form factor

https://minitrucks.net/blogs/news/ev-kei-vans-are-coming-daihatsu-toyota-and-suzuki-collaborate-to-develop-ev-kei-van

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@fahrni Every so often I'll see an older Kei truck that's been legally imported come up for sale on Facebook marketplace, typically for ridiculous money for what you get, and I'm always tempted.

RickiTarr, (edited ) to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What advice would you give to someone just starting out in a relationship?

Mine might sound kind of dark in relation to the question, but here goes:

People change, and they should, it's part of being a person. Some people are lucky, and they change in the same direction, but some don't, and that's okay too. There's no shame in leaving a relationship or changing the nature of a relationship that no longer serves you. We are all taught that every relationship, whether romantic or friendship, is supposed to last forever, but nothing is forever, and forcing something that no longer works, just ends in anger and bitterness. Knowing when to let go is as important as knowing when to hold on through a rough patch, and how to know either of those things is the most cliché advice of all, COMMUNICATE.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@RickiTarr listen more. talk less.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@RickiTarr

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Surely I can't be the only person whose first reaction to seeing a company is named "Hugging Face" is to wonder if they sell Alien xenomorphs bloodily bursting out of human abdominal cavities as a service?

I mean, what were the founders THINKING?!?
https://mastodon.social/@verge/112450968041276837

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@cstross Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet financed a business called Soylent.

I fully expect some VC will pay for a business called Torment Nexus in the next five years.

We live in dumbest timeline, Charlie. Irony is dead.

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

are the spice girls from arrakis

niclake, to random
@niclake@mastodon.social avatar

Wonder if TSwift will have anything to say

Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker says Pride Month is example of 'deadly sin' during commencement speech
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5493651/2024/05/14/chiefs-harrison-butker-pride-month-sin/

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

If I were her publicist, I'd say "embrace your queer fans, but stay in your lane."

I just don't see a lot of upside to her wading into a public debate with her boyfriend's teammate, even if she gets pressure to do so.

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

Saw an expiration date on a bottle of rubbing alcohol and why is that necessary

stroughtonsmith, to random
@stroughtonsmith@mastodon.social avatar

A $3,000 Mac has the ability to run iPad apps. It shouldn’t be controversial to suggest that a $3,000 iPad should have the ability to run Mac apps

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@stroughtonsmith the difference is that the iPad is for content consumption only, silly.

flargh, to StarTrek
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

prune danish is a warrior's pastry

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

James Cameron wants to make three more Avatar movies and Zack Snyder wants to make three more Rebel Moon movies, these guys need an intervention

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

that we've gone from "that guy must have brainworms" to "that guy literally has brainworms" reinforces to me that we are in the absolute silliest timeline

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

Last night I saw a Punisher flag decal on the back of a Subaru wagon and boy is that a very confusing vibe or what

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@fahrni @dmoren and I are both in Mass, which is (in)famously liberal to the rest of the country. But once you get outside urban liberal centers like the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area and some of the surrounding suburbs, the state gets very purple and quite red very quickly.

I live on Cape Cod, and it's very common here to see lots of Trump and Let's Go Brandon-style paraphernalia hanging from the back of trucks and on people's porches.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Where do you live and how do you feel about it?

Obviously, don't tell me exactly where you live, no actual addresses please! You can be as vague as you like.

I live in Central Missouri in the U.S.

Pros:

This is an absolutely beautiful place, green rolling hills, lots of rivers, lakes, ponds, and natural springs, cool caves to explore.

Lots of farming here, so great access to quality fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy.

It's relatively inexpensive to live here compared with other states, because it's a "flyover".

I'm close enough to three major cities, that it's an easy day trip, and I'm about halfway to anywhere in the U.S.

We have one of the best Conservation departments in the U.S. and this is one of the few things that is a bipartisan issue. Lots of awesome nature programs that are free or cheap, state parks, conservation areas, bird watching, hunting, boating, foraging available to everyone.

Cons:

Yeah, it's a big one, it is a RED STATE, while a lot of the cities are blue, there is a large rural population, that votes red. Abortion is not legal here. People often vote against their own self interest.

While I'm not against responsible gun ownership, lots of people aren't responsible, and people have access to guns that definitely should not.

We have very few employee protections here, while the cost of living is relatively low compared with other places, it's taken years to get to a $12 minimum wage, and it's still not enough.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@RickiTarr Massachusetts. Lived here most of my life.

Upsides: Great standard of living.
Rich history everywhere.
Lots of museums, live music, arts.
Seafood.
Four seasons of outdoor activities (beach in summer, skiing in winter).
Breathtaking fall foliage.
Amazing higher ed opportunities.
Wicked good sports teams.

Downsides: High cost of living (taxes and housing costs are FOR THE BIRDS).
Crumbling infrastructure (public transportation is historically bad right now).
Wicked bad drivers.

craiggrannell, to random
@craiggrannell@mastodon.social avatar

This. When I’m in a car, my map app will instantly reroute and give me a time to destination. When I fire it up on a train, it has no idea what’s going on and routes me as if I at that second just got catapulted out of the window.

From: @mcc
https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112413997537959989

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@craiggrannell @mcc Last night I was stuck in gridlock traffic and my map app decided at that point that I'd parked and gave me walking directions to my final destination.

Briefly considered it tbh

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

listen you absolute corporate knob, how do you expect me to close ANYTHING if I don't have coffee

jackbrewster, to random
@jackbrewster@hachyderm.io avatar

I have such highly developed ad blindness that the Crush ad didn't even register with me. It took me awhile to understand what the complaints were about.

I wonder if it would have gone over better if instead of showing things being destroyed, they showed the objects fusing together. Kind of like how we think of a diamond being created.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@caspercdn @jackbrewster Apple may have read the room poorly on this, but I think a lot of the pile-on came from tech pundits who had nothing else of substance to complain about from the event and decided this was the thing to hang Apple for.

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

In the space of half a decade Gen X kids got a lot of mixed messages from the media

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart

flargh, to random
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

So we are at the "Apple made an advertisement that displeased me" stage of tech discourse. You absolute fucking ninnies.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@angry_drunk Mastodon lives at the junction of Poe's Law and the Dunning-Kruger Effect

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

What cracks me up is when you go to a restaurant, and they ask if you've been there before, and then they say, "Well, we do things a little different here", and then it's exactly like every other restaurant, but more expensive.

flargh,
@flargh@mastodon.social avatar

@RickiTarr "Well, we do things a little different here…"

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