Damn inflation is everywhere now, even the transcendentals :'(

Do you want the total war?

Do you want it, if necessary, more total and radical than anything that we can yet today even conceive?

-Bibi Goebels, basically

Two I can think of, luckily neither was that bad.

Firstly I got impatient and bought a new DSLR camera kit off eBay, thinking I would save money and get a good deal. It came with two decent lenses, supposedly, and a bunch of other accessories. Very highly rated seller.

After I made the purchase, I get a message to expect a phone call from such-and-such number. Strange, I thought. They call and immediately I can tell it’s a bait-and-switch. They tell me what they’re going to send, but it’s not what was in the listing. Only one lens, instead of two, and some other shenanigans like substituting inferior brands and cheap shit. I called them out and said either you deliver what was promised in the listing, or I’m opening a dispute, and it won’t be a good look that you tried to change the deal over the phone.

Anyway I got what was listed, but overall it was a disappointment. Grey market items from overseas, not official US licensed gear, so I had no warranty. But I ended up paying as much or more than if I had walked into a local shop. It wasn’t counterfeit, but just left a bad taste in my mouth. The seller disappeared from eBay not long after that…

Second time: I received one of those emails with a password in the subject. It looked familiar, and was in fact an (old) password I had used. Someone took a hacked DB and just fired off countless emails with the passwords to the matching email addresses. But the tone of the email was what spooked me. It said, I have had full access to all your emails, I have figured out how to reset accounts and hacked into your webcam and have some very interesting photos. Either you pay this amount to this bitcoin address or I send the photos to all your contacts and your life will be ruined.

In the moment, I panicked like oh shit this is legit. Even though I couldn’t imagine what photos they referred to, it was still scary being blackmailed. I thought about it, discussed with some people, and they helped calm me down. After a few days, I realized it must be a scam. It was so generic. Surely if it was real, they would mentioned specifics… my name, or what I looked like, or some other unmistakable details.

Over the years, I received a number of other variations with the same jist, and different passwords (my email address was in several major leaks in mid-2000s). I’m glad I didn’t fall for that shit, regardless of how serious it seemed in the moment.

Why stop there? Shut it all down. Pull the plug.

Too many smash burgers not enough veggies?

Also remember the nearest comparison to building a website, was a book, magazine, or newspaper. So just plop those text and images down as if it was a book, only ever intended to be viewed at one fixed resolution (say, 800x600). No smartphones yet. No apps to inspire us. No web 2.0. No emphasis on minimalism or dynamic content.

Unexpected and unpleasant things should happen with different browsers, window sizes, etc.

That site would have been considered remarkably beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. As such it’s not quite realistic.

Much too legible. I recommend less contrast for the text.

I don’t see you playing with alignment? I would like more centered text personally. And long lines of text without breaks.

Why not throw in some “lorem ipsum” placeholders.

Are you using a WYSIWYG editor?

Where are your dancing hampsters?

Also is this before or after it became trendy to copy/paste all sorts of scripts into the html? Remember scrolling text on the status bar, how about those ascii things that follow your mouse around?

I’d keep an eye on your page’s size, remember we would be loading this on 56k dialup modems… if we were lucky!

I’m taking note of all the prominent individuals and organizations which chose to remain on the fascist platform and thus implicitly support it.

Any gender you like as long as it’s gay <3

It’s OK to be “disconnected.”

Especially if “connected” implies dependency on one corporation which has shown general disregard for its customers’ privacy and mental health.

I don’t use Whatsapp, FB, Instagram, snapchat, google, and somehow manage to make my way through the world.

Believe it or not plenty of people still interact in meatspace, limited as it is.

Introducing Google Pay-I.

Revolutionary AI learns from your habits and personality to make payments on your behalf! It will buy things you didn’t even know you needed!

Do you mean to suggest that linking gender-affirming care to satanism/pedophilia, eugenics and hard drug use, in one disjointed pseudo-religious rant is indicative of an agenda? I am shocked!!

I love how you basically state “here’s what I believe!” and then try to deflect all criticism by saying you don’t trust medical studies from the past 30 years.

If you are not receptive to new information, it seems to me that is the definition of blind belief and brainwashing.

It’s the immigrants

Highly recommend Anathem and Diamond Age. Cryptonomicon and Baroque Cycle are more tours-de-force but if you are nerdy enough (I mean c’mon this applies to all his work) and very into history, I can recommend those too.

Finally! The day I’ve been waiting for so long. Goodbye Linux, hello Windows!

- nobody ever

I don’t mind frameworks, but some features that seem super useful to devs, like google analytics, and various diagnostic/logging tools, social media integrations, I would prefer to “opt in” when I decide they are necessary.

I require https, but not every website is secure, and sometimes the certificate has a problem or is expired.

Tldr: I prefer to opt-in.

Technically it’s uBO, but I use the extreme setting that blocks all scripts by default. Truthfully I wasn’t aware just how many scripts get loaded especially on ecommerce and social media sites, there are too many heavy frameworks being used. Much of it is unnecessary bloat, slowing down my browser, and no small amount of it is devoted to tracking and data collection.

In general, I find less than half of loaded scripts are required to make a page functional. It’s a process requiring trial-and-error, but I have a good set of base rules in place for trusted sites and scripts.

For me, it’s about not giving websites free reign over my browser and by extension my computer and personal data, but having some measure of control over them.

And occasionally there are suspicious sites where I truly don’t want any scripts to run. I don’t even have to worry about them.

Internet in 2024 (for me):

1. Service unavailable in your country (VPN)
2. Confirm you’re a human (VPN)
3. Blank page (noscript)
4. Obscure error (fingerprint / cookie blocking)
5. Page not found (https required)

The percentage of websites that “just work” with privacy measures in place is depressingly small.