It's a good point. I was reading the summary thinking the terminal state of social media sounded a lot like TV always was.

That's just the nature of life in general, to expand to fill the niche, even at the cost of other things that were previously there, until carrying capacity is reached. If anything humans are pretty unique in exercising at least some restraint, particularly as we are now poised for a drastic voluntary reduction in population over the next hundred years or so - an instant in the scale of things.

Is it sad or "fucked up"? I suppose, compared to some imaginary ideal that never existed in reality. But at some point it's like getting angry with dandelions for trying to grow in your lawn. We were never not this and neither was anything else.

I don't think slashdot is overrun with bots. It's too small a target. I think that's why (a few) people still come here.

Stuff can be figured out, like refueling a helicopter while it's carrying a load:

https://taskandpurpose.com/new...

...but anyways, it does seem like a fixed-wing plane could drop a huge blade using guided parachutes or dropping the blade to skid to a stop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

The article does discuss that issue, and it can't be dismissed, but says at least Japan checked and pruned their records in 2010. It was prompted by a really extreme example of pension fraud:

The national inquiry was launched after the remains of Sogen Koto, believed to be the oldest man in Tokyo at 111, were found in his family home 32 years after his death.

Wow, they did get greedy didn't they - trying to push it to 110+, as if that wouldn't draw scrutiny. Per wikipedia:

Two of his relatives were arrested in August 2010, and subsequently charged with fraud.[10] Prosecutors alleged that Michiko Kato, 81, Kato's daughter, and Tokimi Kato, 53, his granddaughter, fraudulently received about ¥9,500,000 ($117,939; £72,030) of pension money.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Vigo aside, I thought all the steps involved in reconditioning the stolen phones were quite elaborate. Interesting that it requires site spoofing which means they haven't developed a technical means to defeat the phone's security measures.

Even most people who do exercise don't do interval training. That is discomfort-level exercise!

It's funny because bike messengers were legendary (notorious) even before e-bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Why the lower weight limit? ("Upper" weight limit maybe?)

You can say the infrastructure is "shit" for ebikes, but how could it not be? It's a new class of vehicle, so people want it not to mix with pedestrians, and not to mix with cars. OK, so where do we paint lines for these new lanes exactly?

Bicycles themselves have always had the same issue because of their small numbers - only a certain type of person commonly rides even 10+ miles consistently in a day. e-bikes could bring that to the masses with speeds that are less than scooters mixing with traffic but more than walking. But where to put them?

So have you still experienced rapid tire wear by driving your electric car gently?

I've owned a lot of different motorcycles with very different levels of power over the years, some very quick by (pre-electric) car standards. The powerful bikes gobble the tires. Even a heavier touring bike that tends to be driven more sedately, not so much. (Yes, tire compound matters too)

All programmers will switch over to Pero, slashing productivity by 46%.

They're not just suing because perplexity is a competitor. They allegation is they are reselling Britannica's content without permission (also sometimes with errors added.)

It doesn't seem to be about the AI being trained on the content, either. It's about the AI searching and summarizing that specific content, without sending any traffic or money their way.

The problem with allowing this is that primary news sources will go broke if only derivative ones get paid.

The problem with not allowing it is an AI that can search and summarize or find answers to specific questions for you is extremely useful.

I was going to say that translation must require uploading everything to a server which would inherently trigger endless concerns. But the iPhone can do translation on-device with no upload, which surprises me:

You can translate text, voice, and conversations into any supported language. You can also download languages to translate entirely on a device, even without an internet connection.

https://support.apple.com/guid...

Yeah I don't think banning people with certain usernames is going to work.

I think what we need for this is something like Miami Vice, except it's a private security organization operated by Big Tech. It's an all-star team of private investigators and ex-special forces that act as judge, jury, and executioner in the mean streets of the internet-enabled drug wars of the 21st century.

Not sure how it will blend with Denmark's "fix rooms" which is a government-funded safe space for people to go use drugs, but hey, it's complicated.