Fusion. I think it’s our only hope of making it through climate change without massive losses.

Raclette

Not really. I was in college in the early to mid 90s. One of my fellow CS students had a NeXT cause he was loaded but the rest of us just used the computer labs.

You ask for good news to help you feel better and then when I try to offer some you criticize it? You’re certainly not one of the helpers. Mr Rogers would not be proud of you. Go back to doomscrolling then.

MacKenzie Scott giving away billions over the years, most recently this: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/business/mackenzie-scott-donates-640-million-open-call/index.html

No doubt - his focus has built some really cool stuff. He always struck me as a decent sort and his fight on behalf of the little guy when it comes to percentages paid to Steam, Apple, and his own Epic shows that too.

I went to highschool with him. We hung in the same crowd of nerds and geeks. Not sure if he’s changed as an adult, but back then he was extremely introverted. Hung out at a couple of parties in his parent’s basement (where he started his shareware empire) and he spent the whole time on his computer. Should he ever write his memoirs I suspect they would focus mostly on his business life and his anti-trust efforts against various companies.

Air and Space in DC. You can touch a fucking piece of the moon!

Which is why I’m excited for the fediverse because it’s the closest thing to Usenet since Google decided to buy and kill it.

https://i.imgur.com/mF6B757.jpeg

Paintball. So many times in the 90s I’ve fantasized about this while at the mall.

I got a pair of these when they were on sale for $39 last year, and I liked them so much I bought a second pair for when they bite the dust.

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/wyze-headphones

Vodka

A dead body doesn’t look real. The stillness and one’s denial mechanisms combine to make it look like a mannequin.

Slashdot had an interesting variation on voting. People would be randomly assigned mod points to give to posts they like. It didn’t happen every day but when it did you spent those points and then it was other people’s turn the next day. Then they had a similar meta-moderation system on top of that so that misused points or trolling could get corrected. I’ve not seen it’s like since.

I knew a very smart manager who quit smoking but still used to go hang out in the smoking area just to stay in touch with everything. I’ve learn more in 10 minute conversations while smoking with coworkers than entire week long seminars.

It’s basic wildlife management.

If you let the hunters kill all the deer then you don’t have a hunting season next year and Cabela’s doesn’t get to sell guns and ammo to hunters.

At least with deer it’s illegal to shoot them at a salt lick though.

https://youtu.be/tVqrekel3a4?si=XgoArrzdN5IMv5ED

Hold on, let me check with my wife :)

Move back to Australia. Thank god I kept my citizenship.

Metformin. No other changes. Guess the better blood sugar levels make a difference. Still drinking coke and eating whatever I feel like and dropped 10lbs. The only reason I noticed was because my pants kept falling down.

Maker spaces and libraries are one way you could get cheaper access than having to buy your own.

All of them:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/video-gaming-may-be-associated-better-cognitive-performance-children

Soon

Education. Until the masses realize the tricks being used on them, we can redistribute all we want and it will still all funnel up to the top again.

The naive irony of all the Less Wrong people discussing letting the AI out of the box when we all know there won’t be a box at all.

Although it would probably lead to a big badda boom :)

Am I really the oldest one here? Sigh.

Pong