The link worked for me the first time but only once

It can be hard to find fediverse instances and content inside of them. They are working to make things easier to search for on Mastadon. With a little work it could be used with (and between) many things on the fediverse!

The bulbs themselves are amazing. There are good ones in cars and computers, the flash of phones etc.

The failure point is typically the electronic components that run or regulate it. And of course most companies want to sell more bulbs so they conveniently skimp on that stuff. So maybe the answer is a more expensive bulb that hopefully will last long enough to justify the extra cost?

People think that govt developed = bad. It’s a consideration for sure but if anything govt developed is so hopelessly and inherently compromised then many of the measures discussed here are useless for privacy already because they almost all run through internet, a govt created system. Even TOR. But yet here we are anyway because they are still useful systems.

Governments pour tons of time money and effort into secure communication, and not for profit, and we can still take advantage of that advancement with some caution.

Wait until they find out who started the internet. Or who runs GPS satellites

I work with a K9 search and rescue team now and then. The team is very good at going deep into the woods looking for missing and/or dead people on scent trails that are sometimes over 24h old.

One of the ladies used a black tactical rig full of pouches. But instead of gun stuff it held gps devices, radios, dog treats, toys, water, collapsible bowls and a dozen other things for her and her dog.

So we geeked out for like five minutes over how useful it was. It’s a Condor Ronin Rig if anyone is curious

I’m sorry for your loss

Doritos are triangles so sure

The heads up display isn’t something you see in front of you like most planes. The helmets are the heads up display, like augmented reality.

There are cameras all over the plane to help you see through the aircraft (see ground targets through the floor, nearby aircraft through your wing). Think of the resolution and bitrate needed to make it useful!

Just like how an apache gunner can simply look at a target to aim the gun at them you can do the same thing to get missile lock. And if you can’t hit it it’s still marked for every allied plane in the airspace to see. If you are out of missiles but you are tracking an enemy plane miles ahead, you can send the data to an F-15 miles behind you and let their missiles lock and fire from farther than they can engage alone.

With that in mind the radar is awesome letting it see threats from greater distances than the opposition, with the stealth capabilities good enough to keep them from easily doing the same.

I’m sure there are other surprises too, but the military obviously wants to keep those a secret

It would suck if poison ivy tea tasted really good

I genuinely think the best practical use of AI, especially language models is malicious manipulation. Propaganda/advertising bots. There’s a joke that reddit is mostly bots. I know there’s some countermeasures to sniff them out but think about it.

I’ll keep reddit as the example because I know it best. Comments are simple puns, one liner jokes, or flawed/edgy opinions. But people also go to reddit for advice/recommendations that you can’t really get elsewhere.

Using an LLM AI I could in theory make tons of convincing recommendations. I get payed by a corporation or state entity to convince lurkers to choose brand A over brand B, to support or disown a political stance or to make it seem like tons of people support it when really few do.

And if it’s factually incorrect so what? It was just some kind stranger™ on the internet

All I know is that I use socials to get away from political bullshit

When it was sms compatible it was a suuuuper easy sell for my family

“It’s way more secure when you text me but you can still text everyone else you know too. And we can still use it through wifi if cell service isn’t working for me.”

It would potentially fall under “fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine” that would make it inadmissable for actual court cases but otherwise there’s nothing to stop people from gathering information that is available to the public

Sometimes it feels like we’re running in rhombicosidodecahedrons

We can always do the “nothing beyond my immediate observation can be trusted” method like the flat earthers do

I think Kamala has much better odds than Biden did this time around. The assassination attempt on Trump was crazy and solidified his supporters.

I think it’s a closer race than either side thinks

So the solar panel I have doens’t have an on board battery, just straight to usb. It makes it lighter and less bulky so I don’t mind.

I personally think most phones would be okay but I’ve read in a few places that some devices don’t play nice with the variations in electricity from the solar panel.

So the battery brick is the middleman.

I got a folding solar panel that I use to charge a big power brick and then use that to charge devices. The goal is to use the solar panel on long camping trips and in case of power outages.

The brick alone will keep my phone topped off for over a week