QuantumBamboo

I always have a little chuckle at 13:37. It’s one of those times that I irrationally feel I see more often than any other time, but it’s just that I notice that specific set of numbers more than any other… or maybe I check the time at exactly the same point each day because my body clock is 1337!

Snowball throwing was banned because a nephew of a friend of a friend of a teacher was supposedly blinded by one. Same school had an assembly that informed us that listening to heavy metal would make us want to kill our friends.

*Ubend Oranges

Fat tube severing Mum tea

People are perfectly within their rights to be rubbed up the wrong way.

Find another way to try and bring people to your point of view

Thanks for your great example of condescension for clarity. A little unsolicited feedback though… other people, unaware of your virtuous intent, might view it as a petty attempt to belittle a stranger on the internet. Other than that, a solid comment. B+

… that’s condescending.

No accusations intended. My point is if you’re clued up enough to be comfortable making your own decisions then fill your boots. I’m not here to convince you. The “aggressive” advertising is the only way they are able generate revenue. And I’m fine with that compared to the alternatives. I find it far more disrespectful to have my data skimmed and monetised by a system of exploitative consumption.

I would rather they make money from advertising their own pretty awesome services than from advertising unsustainable (environmentally, but also unsustainable for the fucking soul!) bullshit via blood sucking multinational tech companies that prey on the masses with whatever data they can automatically dig up on you. The revenue Proton makes from converting free customers to paid allows them to grow a freely available service that is a user-friendly and is a technical rival of the surveillance capitalists.

My take is:

• If you’re the sort of person that is convinced your requirements need some custom covert ops pagan voodoo self hosted data center in an old cold war era bunker, don’t let me stop you. You crack right on mate and good luck (sounds like you need it!).
• If you want the sorts of services Proton provides, but don’t want to be fucked, then Proton are a good shout.
• If you can afford it, pay for it. It makes the experience smoother and keeps a relatively small but decent company going in an ocean of massive cunts.
• If you can’t afford it and don’t want to use the free version of Proton, I hear Google and Microsoft will happily buy your soul and sell your data.

If seeing a tiny squiggle makes OP think they’ve taken crazy pills… Genuinely had a moment where I thought I had gone completely insane.

I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the person who came up with the name Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors revealed their idea. I’ve got an image of someone sitting on their hands, eyes wide and shaking slightly as their desire to share it tries to burst out of them!

Why not present ones? And how do you know who you’ll work with in the future?

When I was about 16 I was walking past a nightclub as some guys were packing up a van outside. One of them called out to me and started telling me a story about how they were fitting out the club with a new sound system and had some surplus speakers. They asked if I wanted to take them off their hands. Really, I wanted to go and research them first, but this was in the olden days before the entire internet was in your pocket. They showed me the brochure and manual, I gave them £200 cash, and they drove me home in the van with the speakers. On the journey I started to get suspicious and got them to drop me a few roads over from my actual house. Lugged the speakers home by hand, started researching them and found it was a common scam. The units themselves were totally fake and from what others had said were a fire hazard. Police weren’t interested as I had given the money freely. I had a buddy take them to the dump in his van. I spent quite a while researching who was behind it and ended up with the details of the “company” manufacturing the units in a workshop in London. I then spent a few weeks having fun prank calling them with various soundboards (Arnie was the best!). I made my peace with the whole scenario by framing it as an overpriced, but entertaining subscription to a guilt-free prank call experience.