As suspected, this paper is based upon Paul Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System, better known as micro-expressions.

This controversial literature borderlines on pseudo-science, with Ekman’s work having significant conflicts of interest in the form of undisclosed funding from US defence, police, and border control, who wanted Ekman to create systems that can detect lies based on supposed micro expressions. Subsequent independent meta analyses have found that micro expressions cannot be consistently read, even by Ekman’s own researchers.

Unfortunately, despite this, world governments have poured millions of dollars into private contractors to develop AI systems based on this flawed research for border control.

Munecat’s video essay on debunking body language experts goes into much greater detail:

https://youtu.be/Y0VQyEY-B2I

South Korea is infamous for very high cost of living, especially considering the very low salaries.

You can check numbeo for more specific comparisons, but Seoul and Busan are only 20% and 30% cheaper in terms of cost of living compared to Atlanta GA, respectively. Not nearly enough to make up the salary difference.

The fact there there are migrant workers already tells you the situation. People’s behaviour generally follow economic incentives. There’s a reason why South Korea is struggling with emigration.

Because money, sadly.

An automotive factory worker averages around $25/hour in the US, or an annual salary of around 50K.

An automotive factory worker in South Korea averages around 17,000 KRW/hour, or an annual salary of around 36 mil KRW, which is roughly $12/hour or 25K annual.

No need for any new extensions. Just add a new uBlock filter for AI slop.

https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist

Even browsing existing small to medium sized sites has become such a chore, with all these verifications and rate limiters as part of the anti AI scraper effort.

So many cloudflare verification checkboxes. So many Google sign ins. So many cross site cookies and tracking for even basic functionality.

Care about privacy and restrict browsing data even a little? Captcha hell.

Ben Garrison’s comic of Greta Thunberg getting spanked (spoiler for your protection):

If your online content is audio or video then you can replace the default subtitle track with nonsense. This is because AI scrapers generally only check the default subtitle track to understand audio or video.

The process would be more difficult with text or image content, but you can still apply the same principles.

Poisonining AI with “.ass” subtitles:

https://youtu.be/NEDFUjqA1s8

Someone (allegedly) fucked the principal’s dog

I don’t think the any interaction definition is too broad at all. Primitive forms of social media such as mailing lists and forum threads form are very similar in functionality to simply following hashtags, or I guess whatever the algorithms suggest.

The distinction using account based versus conversation/thread based is not too helpful, because the majority of users of modern social media don’t really use it to follow accounts, with the majority of their time is spent doomscrolling generic hashtags or algorithm recommendations.

The similarities are easier to see if you think of how people actually used these technologies in their daily lives. Pre Facebook, people would log in and refresh their Usenet, emails, and forums threads to keep in touch with friends and interests. Post Facebook, people would log in and refresh Facebook/Insta instead.

I owned a Remarkable and returned it because it is so frustrating.

Remarkable runs a scuffed version of Linux, which requires developers to release a separate version of whatever app they have. Although the selection is growing, it is paltry compared to offerings from a typical Android or iOS device.

Below is a list of so called “best” apps. No syncthing, no Obsidian, no Saber, etc. Multiple scuffed versions of Zotero that can’t do annotations.

https://github.com/reHackable/awesome-reMarkable

Even for the few custom apps available, these are all uninstalled and reset with every OS update.

https://remarkable.guide/faqs.html#what-happens-to-third-party-software-when-i-update-or-downgrade-my-os

If you don’t want to use the few third party cloud sync options, then Remarkable charges money for cloud sync.

https://remarkable.com/shop/connect/pricing

Remarkable’s notes are also stored in a proprietary format that cannot be read by other applications. Attempts to reverse engineer it are jank af.

https://github.com/akeil/rmtool

It it works for you, great 👍. But I cannot whole heartedly recommend it. Even if you love eInk, just grab an Android based one like Boox.

Thumbs down for Remarkable. Dumb vendor lock-in with subscription fees and inability to easily transfer notes, no external app support, yet still retails close to iPad prices.

At that point, deploying locked down iPads is easier, cheaper, and offers more flexibility. Which is exactly what a lot of schools and universities already do.

This is basically the central thesis of world famous economist Thomas Piketty.

Inequality inevitably worsens if the rate on capital exceeds the rate on labour. That is, when society rewards simply owning capital and wealth more than working.

Africa tech is just Chinese tech so they’re already cooked.

Australia basically banned encryption long ago and in doing killed off their tech industry.

We need a New Zealand tech revolution, which is where all the Australian IT firms relocated to following the encryption ban.

Encryption laws are hurting Australia’s tech sector, Atlassian says | Australian security and counter-terrorism | The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/27/encryption-laws-are-hurting-australias-tech-sector-atlassian-says

Or just spin up some minimum wage nobodies/chatbots to spread misinformation online so their own citizens do the terrorism for you

As much I despise Spotify, I’m trying out Qobuz and it’s just not really it.

No folder organisation for playlists or albums.

No Linux application.

No lyrics.

No support for smart speakers.

No information linking to artist tours and merch.

No dedicated classical music app.

Generally lacking when it comes to non western artists.

Prides itself on providing high quality music, yet still only has lower quality masters for some artists compared to Apple Music, Tidal, and even Spotify.

I want to love it, like the way it loves and respects the music industry, with it’s special magazine etc, but it’s just not it.

It’s a 好帮手wok, a line of SUPOR, which is a very well known and regarded brand in China and Asia more broadly.

The Japanese isn’t random, just reads as ちゅうかなべ which is just Chinese wok. They probably added it to the California specific packing to appeal to the rather substantial Japanese market there.

It’s a crypto rag, so not at all

Water cooling is typically much more complex and expensive than air cooling, and is mainly attractive because of space limitations. The same applies to data centers. IBM’s mainframes have a liquid cooled version mainly targeted towards users wishing to get the most out of their data center space before upgrading sites. These ship without coolant, and simply ask the user to “just add water,” i.e. just demineralised/distilled water.

Sure Mainframe ain’t dead, but what about that toilet water? | Aussie Storage Blog - https://aussiestorageblog.wordpress.com/2021/04/07/sure-mainframe-aint-dead-but-what-about-that-toilet-water/

My pet peeve is people thinking they are being clever by complaining about the supposed incorrect usage of literally as figuratively.

People, including famous authors, have been literally (not hyperbole) using the word as an intensifier, and therefore, figuratively, since 1847, e.g. F Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, and William Thackeray.

Did we change the definition of ‘literally’? | Merriam-Webster - https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/misuse-of-literally

Just be like the French and ban billboard advertising. No need for these stupid gadgets.

French cities are banning billboards - https://www.marketplace.org/story/2023/03/06/french-cities-are-banning-billboards