I recommend Obsidian for keeping track of events like this 👍

I was going to say... I've had an elastic belt that basically disintegrated when I pulled it out of the closet after not having worn it in 15 years (wore it for 5 years before that).

"For life"? No. Pretty long time? Probably.

Honestly, this doesn't sound like spyware. More like absurd optimization. Here's why: Audio devices often go to sleep (to save battery) and can take a second or two to wake up. That's enough time that the end user will miss the first second or two of audio.

By keeping the audio outputting something (even if it's just silence), they can guarantee that their little (often hilariously terrible) product videos will play the way they expect (which is loud and startling, of course!).

This is just one of those stupid tricks that's bad for energy use but good for ignorant users who might complain that the first second of every AliExpress video is silent 🤷

The reason why I believe this to be the case is because there's really nothing unique or interesting to be learned from an audio output loop that's literally sending zeros through itself. If you wanted to use that to fingerprint a user, you wouldn't need to keep it active. You could pass a single zero (silence) through and be done.

The actual thing they need to do in order to compete is in-source parts manufacturing in order to take advantage of economies of scale... Like the Chinese EV manufacturers do.

Basically, toss out the Chicago school of economics thinking and go back to their roots as an all-things manufacturer. Ideally, they'd innovate as part of that by adopting new technologies like 3D printing to bring costs down and accelerate improvements.

I don't mean "3D printing for prototyping." They already do that. I mean, 3D print the final part. If it works for fucking rockets going into space, it can work for cars too. Especially electric vehicles which are much simpler to make.

Elfaloids and elfatryptamine.

Possibly also hydroxy-lilliputimol and/or lilliputinic acid.

The US is not a theocracy. Conservatives want it to be one—in theory—but they would never agree on which religion would be the one true religion.

You'd think they'd settle on something simple and nebulous like, "Christianity" but the moment they started trying to define that in law the whole concept would fall apart because there's way too many completely incompatible differences between Christian sects. Not to mention the fact that Mormons (and other niche sects) consider themselves to be Christian while huge swaths of people consider them to be anything but.

The best they can ever get away with is what they've got now: Completely unconstitutional (IMHO) exceptions in various laws for "genuinely held religious beliefs."

Remember: The conservatives on the supreme court really do think that if a doctor has a genuine religious belief that someone should die from a treatable condition, they should not be held to account for letting that person die.

I fantasize about one of these justices going to the hospital for an emergency heart condition and having the doctor refuse to treat them because of a truly genuine, deeply-held religious belief that conservatives should just die from such things since they don't believe in medicine or science in general.

Shit. I just realized I went straight to the comments!

"Oh, if only I had children I wouldn't be able to afford this hospital visit and could've cried in squalor, knowing I contributed something other than minor economic output!"

Woah! How much money we talking about? If anyone wants to split it with me, you can "turn me in" 👍

I'll be happy to explain my incredibly boring, not even remotely illegal activities. Can't say them out loud here, though. That's for the FBI to fall asleep to 🙂‍↕️

I wonder how many times we can get the money? "Ugh, not you again! Why are we paying people for this‽"

So basically... There's was no justice for rich people in the past either.

Or like isn't the UK the most surveiled country with their camera system?

Ahahah! That's a good one!

You think all those cameras are accessible to everyone or even the municipal authorities? Think again!

All those cameras are mostly useless—even for law enforcement (the only ones with access). It's not like anyone is watching them in real time and the recordings—if they even have any—are like any IT request: Open a ticket and wait. How long? I have no idea.

Try it: If you live in the UK, find some camera in a public location and call the police to ask them, "is there an accident at (location camera is directly pointing at)?"

They will ask you all sorts of questions before answering you (just tell them you heard it through the grapevine or something) but ultimately, they will send someone out to investigate because accessing the camera is too much of a pain in the ass.

It's the same situation here in the US. I know because the UK uses the same damned cameras and recording tech. It sucks! They're always looking for ways to make it easier to use and every rollout of new software actually makes it harder and more complicated!

How easy is the ticket system at your work? Now throw in dozens of extra government-mandated fields 🤣

Never forget: The UK invented bureaucracy and needles paperwork!

Someone summoned the arch mage!