Another Kentuckian in tech here. Thanks for the list. A friend recently attended https://13layers.com/event/lextalktechjan24/ and said it was a good mix of talks. I think they're quarterly and it's on my list to follow up.
I also lurk on these slacks: bluegrass-dev.slack (same folks as the meetup I assume), Louisville Tech louisville.slack, and startuplexington.slack
Hope we keep this ball rolling a bit longer on meetups and gatherings both in person and online.
Just a reminder that despite whatever their front page advertises, while your account will be marked as "deleted" (23andMe still retaining your email address and some other pieces of information), your genetic data won't be deleted:
> 23andMe and the contracted genotyping laboratory will retain your Genetic Information, Date of Birth, and sex as required for compliance with legal obligations, pursuant to the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 and California laboratory regulations.
> 23andMe will retain limited information related to your data deletion request, such as your email address and Account Deletion Request Identifier, as necessary to fulfill your request and for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.
And that's why I don't use 23andMe, even though I'm quite interested in the product and was super tempted to buy. Just because it's not future-proof, and that's a deal breaker.
If you know of a DNA sequencing service that can do its job, send the result, then destroy every sample and every bit of information they had (save, possibly, for the payment receipt), please let me know. Don't care about ancestry, relatives and other social stuff, just the raw genetic data.
It's relatively expensive and a little janky but it's insane how much more time I feel I have in my day. My work has improved (if my commit-calendars are any indication), and I no longer spend time in bed scrolling when I sleep / wake up.
Many people try "Sober October" - I've just completed "Dumbphone December" and I don't think I'll be going back.
Teaching kids that "everyone who drinks Caffeine/Energy drinks is an addict" is whack, it's an absolutely massive generalization that others a huge swath of society. We should teach kids compassion, not animosity.
Addiction isn't binary, and either some people don't get addicted as easily, and/or different people perceive addiction differently. All I know is that some people can pick up and drop substances and be unfazed, and other people can't stop even as it kills them. I have a bunch of friends who can only drink coffee for a few days before it makes them too anxious. They definitely aren't addicts, but they will buy and drink an energy drink if they need the boost badly enough.
I have no doubt that Caffeine saves lives every year by keeping people alert in dangerous jobs.
You don't need to wonder. Look to Japan for the broad strokes: property in cities will still have value while rural areas fall into decay.
In more words: young people will crowd into cities in order to meet other young people and find work, while aged areas descend into irrelevance and whatever this is: [1]
Due to this, Greater Tokyo now contains 1/3rd the population of Japan[2]. While you can find a number of articles claiming it's cheap compared to metros in other countries, or horrifically expensive[3][4], whichever it may be it is certainly better than what's in [1].
With measured change in C02 the past 60 years[0], how can we expect the system to behave the same? In my lifetime I will breathe air with C02 levels of 480ppm. Throw in the high sea temperatures [1][2] if you would like some bonus content.
Idk what it means for us on the ground. 90% of the doomerisms haven't gone anywhere - but this is worth keeping an eye on. Who knows, maybe in 3 more generations we'll hit 800ppm C02 and experience cognitive decline[3] before we have to worry about the climate system getting funky :)
I don't think existing media channels will continue to be an effective way to disseminate information. The noise destroys the usefulness of it. I think people will stop coming to platforms for news and entertainment as they begin to distrust them.
The surveillance prospect however, is frightening.
I think people aren't thinking about these things in the aggregate enough. In the long term, this does a lot of damage to existing communication infrastructure. Productivity alone isn't necessarily a virtue.
I've recently switched to a dumb phone. Why keep an internet browsing device in my pocket if the internet's largest players are designing services that will turn a lot of its output into noise?
I don't know if I'll stick with the change, but so far I'm having fun with the experience.
The Israel/Gaza war is a large factor - I don't know what to believe when I read about it online. I can be more slow and careful about what I read and consume from my desktop, from trusted sources. I'm insulated from viral images sent hastily to me via social media, from thumbnails of twitter threads of people with no care if they're right or wrong, from texts containing links with juicy headlines that I have no hope of critically examining while briefly checking my phone in traffic.
This is all infinitely worse in a world where content can be generated by multi-modal LLMs.
I have no way to know if any of the horrific images/videos I've already seen thru the outlets I've identified were real or AI generated. I'll never know, but it's too important to leave to chance. For that reason I'm trying something new to set myself up for success. I'm still informed, but my information intake is deliberately slowed. I think that others may follow in time, in various ways.
As other comments have said, Google's was a jury trial, Apple's not. And, even if neither were jury trials, as another another comment said, the justice system is not a hivemind: the way your case goes can and does depend on the judge/jury passing judgement.
That being said, Apple isn't stupid: they probably know as of now, even if they managed to believe it didn't before, that this monopoly on distribution has a shelf life. So I'm interested to see how they expand iOS app distribution to counter the claims of monopolistic behavior in the future, not unlike the way Microsoft supported other browsers financially for years to stop the FTC suing them into the dirt over Internet Explorer.
I'm generally an Apple fan, and to be totally honest, if there was another app distribution system on iOS, I doubt I would touch it. I appreciate the baseline level of quality and curation in the App Store and have no desire to leave it. I see the low-effort dreck of the Play store by comparison as undesirable. That being said, I don't grudge anyone for pointing out Apple's position in that space is uncompetitive. It is. I have no interest in alternatives but that doesn't mean alternatives shouldn't exist.
Thank you for the explanation. I'm also an Apple fan and would not leave the App Store easily, however I am unhappy that I am forever unable to do so.
I think rulings against these companies are warranted, but I want an end game where iPhone is closer to Android's best aspects, not where Android drops them to mimic iPhone's. Google could easily stop being as "anti-competitive" by not releasing another public update of Android again, launching a new "Pixel Play Store" available on Pixel, and putting all of their effort into this platform going forward. The world would be a worse place for this, and Google would likely make more services revenue. I have a feeling developers would abandon the other manufacturer's platforms in a microsecond. If Google's not allowed to have influence over the default search/apps installed on 3rd party android phones made by Samsung/HTC, why would Google even bother with the business? They only ran it to get more mobile search users into Google Search IMO.
I'm sure Google deserves to get smacked for the worst of their behavior but Apple walking away (for now) without a scratch is sending a stark message, at least to my eyes. You say Apple's time with this behavior is limited, and I can only hope you're right. Being positive, hopefully down the line, this case can be used as a wedge to peel Apple's grip open.
The founder of Branch Metrics ... struggled to integrate
with devices because of steps Google took to block them.
> Sounds like Google is getting punished for being a more open ecosystem than Apple.
A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the
informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from
the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing
or acknowledging the distinction. One who engages in this
fallacy is said to be "attacking a straw man".
Toyota has been good to the area.
Off topic, but is there a popular tech meetup in the state? Moved back a year and some change ago and would love to get more involved.