As someone who pre-dates the public Internet and spent a lot of time dialling in to BBSes when most people thought personal computers were for nerds…

The Internet will fracture, but not break down. What would happen is balkanization of the Internet, with physical areas running their own networks, and a bunch of poor “dark” areas. Some of those networks would likely have low bandwidth interconnections, such that digest data could still spread, much like the early days of usenet and fidonet.

Local culture and tribalism would increase, and information would skyrocket in value. The rich would still have access to, and control, the information. The poor would be left out completely.

I’m waiting for the catch. They already name washed themselves; I expect them to be exploiting some new market that isn’t aware of who they are and what they do.

Agreed; after using various running and other gloves, I settled on a set of work gloves that are thin nylon weave on the back and dipped in nitrile on the front, similar to gardening gloves.

They let the steam out while keeping my hands from getting too cold in -10 weather, AND I can use my phone with them on (although I don’t recommend doing that below freezing).

I do 3 hour trail runs through the winter and they’ve worked better than my running gloves or my merino wool cutoffs. And they’re $3 a pair.

Who says that was me?

Here’s one: where do you put things like The Long Earth where it’s not time you step through per-se, but all the possible futures starting from the beginning of the universe?

I really want to see someone make that series into a movie.

I try to blend in and avoid posting my main privacy activities in public.

Despite what they say, while obfuscation may not be secure, it sure helps with privacy.

Whenever I hear about Canada and the White House in the same sentence, it reminds me of that little event in 1812….

Thank you, CBC. I’ve had it with PostMedia.

BC citizens like to flip, because they don’t want to vote for anyone who hasn’t kept their election promises?

We’ve always been fickle.

https://birdsarentreal.com/

The US already does that :D

One part of this is history.

Canada and the US were British colonies; Mexico was a Spanish colony.

When some of the British colonies declared independence, they still had to trade with the colonies that hadn’t. People had relatives on both sides, the postal systems were integrated, indigenous people were mistreated in the same manner, and the list goes on. Culturally, the two remained very similar while the political systems differed.

Stuff coming from England often ended up in Toronto or New York; both of these cities became hubs of publication.

This is the way the relationship stayed pretty much up until NAFTA in the 1990s; books had already had over a century of being published in Toronto and New York for distribution across English North America.

Mexico had a different history, and a different relationship with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Instead of Mexico being a route for culture and European goods to enter the US, it was a source of cheap labor once slavery was abolished.

Unlike Canada where the most influential Canadians lived right along the border, in Mexico the influential Mexicans lived further south, with itinerant workers living along the border.

NAFTA changed the balance of trade somewhat, but it didn’t change the already established cultural norms or the places people lived.

One clarification: carrier towers can still find a phone; GPS is passive; your phone locates itself in relation to the GPS satellites.

Most phones are also broadcasting WiFi MAC IDs and Bluetooth MACs, plus hardware and capability strings over Bluetooth. And then any apps you’ve got loaded may also be calling home with your location unless you have that disabled and rotate your ad ID regularly.

[edit] also worth pointing out that even if you turn a smartphone “off” it still pings the local cell towers with its IMEI regularly. Surprised me the first time I witnessed that.

Exactly; email is digital post cards and always has been.

Of course, that means I can encrypt a message and use someone else’s email account to send it :)

I have a LinkedIn account. It has the list of recent jobs I’ve held and my education.

That’s my social media presence.

Things like Lemmy are my secondary presence that I keep anonymous.

It’s never been an issue during my background checks. But then, if anyone ever dared to ask me about my lack of presence, I’d give them a level stare and tell them that I practice what I preach.

…on procedural or technical grounds.

That’s the important bit; I had been thinking that they were just dodgy complaints, but it’s really that the forms weren’t filled out correctly or the right paper didn’t get to the right person on time.

Less functional than leg warmers though. Leg warmers were for athletes, especially dancers, to keep their lower legs warm between their slot for warmup and a performance. They always came off for the actual event.

Socks have the benefit of keeping your feet warm too, but you can’t pull them off quickly over your shoes.

Track pants are for essentially the same thing for track and field events (and later for basketball) - a covering to keep you warm while you’re inactive that can be quickly removed once you’re ready to move.

Depends? If you want it to keep its size, softness and insulative properties, yes — wash by hand and hang to dry. But being wool, it binds to oils well, including body oils.

I’m not sure how much age has to do with it; Boomers have shown they’re just as willing to give up their privacy if it makes things more convenient for them.

It’s true that the people born after the advent of loot boxes have never known real privacy or ownership, but I know that I raised my kids to know the value of both. There’s a phrase in my house: “always read the contract.” If the contract doesn’t seem balanced, it’s expected to modify it. If the other party rejects the modifications, it’s fine to reject their terms and do something else.

Just because someone says you have to agree to a contract doesn’t mean you do. And that often opens up options for ownership that you’d otherwise miss.

They just can’t get a break, can they?

So… it actually happened?