Rep. Tony Lovasco, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon. “Generally speaking, we don’t charge people with crimes because we think they’re going to hurt someone.”

Too much to unpack here.

Define “done”.

On mobile, when everyone was releasing their new voice assistant technologies, Cortana outperformed them all. On desktop I agree that Cortana was a waste of space.

I’ve been a MS products fan since Windows Phone, Cortana, and OneNote stole my heart. I loved the great features that Windows 10 and Edge provided out-of-the box. Bing provided better results than Google for some time.

But Phone was never accepted by the market, and with it, Cortana faded away. OneNote hasn’t kept up with the market, and they somehow broke the cursor on mobile. Sticky Notes lost compatibility with Dark Mode. They started pushing ads to Windows start menu, and embedded ads in Edge Collections.

Microsoft makes great software, then fuck it all up. Oh well, back to Linux.

Maybe she’s scared. Maybe she’s hesitant. Maybe she was in a really bad relationship. Maybe it’s health problems. Maybe she’s not interested after all. No way to know what’s going on in her head, even if you ask. If I were in your shoes I’d say, “hey. I’m feeling mixed signals because of xyz. I’d still like to do this but if you don’t want to, that’s okay too. If it’s only that you’re not ready, just let me know when you are.”

Yes. I think it’s especially important for attracting (or perhaps more accurately, maintaining) new users to the fediverse.

What do you normally like to do when you have an evening alone?

Because Star Trek future doesn’t have their favorite features: bigotry, inequality, and runaway capitalism.

I’m not in a position to affect change in a powerful way. So I try to stay educated and informed, I vote at the ballot box, I vote with my wallet, I donate what I reasonably can to places where I think it will help, and I speak out when it’s appropriate to do so.

It’s not even an innovative design. It’s a DeLorean mashed with the futuristic Ford seen in the Hill Valley town square in Back to the Future 2.

I’d love to see manufacturers take a more retro-futurism approach. Then they can do physical buttons AND interesting aesthetics.

It finally got the fingers right.

Chemistry, biology, and medicine are the few places where AI can provide real benefits to our world.

Jesus Christ.

🫡

You’re conflating a few different concepts, and misunderstanding how DNA tests work. …And the only thing any of this has to do with CRT is that these questions are a symptom of it.

Race, ancestry, and ethnicity are not synonyms.

Race is “A group of people identified as distinct from other groups because of supposed physical or genetic traits shared by the group. Most biologists and anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid classification, in part because there is more genetic variation within groups than between them.” (American Heritage)

Ethnicity refers to “people sharing a common cultural or national heritage and often sharing a common language or religion.” (American Heritage)

Ancestry is biological lineage.

DNA tests approximate the location on the globe (overlaid with national borders) where your ancestors lived at some point in time. They do this by taking DNA samples of people from all around the world, mapping that with human migration patterns, and comparing your DNA to that data pool to determine the statistical likelihood that you’re ancestors lived in a certain place within a certain time period in human history.

DNA tests do not determine race (social classification) or ethnicity (cultural classification). DNA tests can determine some physical traits, but not everyone with the same traits belong to what we might consider the same race. And not everyone who considers themselves to be of the same race have the same DNA.

There is no biological definition for the word “race”.

You lost me with all the ads baked into the OS. You’re not gonna win me back with… checks notes Notepad.

I’ve dipped my toes in Linux a few times over the years, but after Windows started pushing ads to the start menu, the lock screen, and the Edge Collections pane, they pushed pushed me off the cliff.

Hot take: memory is pliable.

It’s a little bright at night, that’s why I use dark mode, inverting the “paper” and “ink”.

I did a lot of research and ended up buying a Kobo for my wife who was looking to switch from paperback. At the time the Clara HD was the newer model in the size and feature family she was looking for. I made the choice based on e-ink quality, wide compatibility of formats (including public library rental), and price.

Keep in mind that Amazon keeps device prices artificially low by pushing ads to your screen. I have had four different Kindle Fires over the years, and hate how intrusive the advertising is on their devices.

After spending a year or so jealous of my wife’s Kobo Clara HD, I bought myself the then newer Kobo Libra 2. Then she was jealous of my Libra and bought herself one, and gave the Clara to our kid who is a bookworm as well.

We love our Kobos.