Remember when “web2.0” and “social” (in the Tech sense) were just buzzwords?

Iirc, Android is based on Linux, so not too far fetched

I have family in China, I have family in the US, and I live in neither. Your average person just goes about their lives no matter where. You can be a political activist and go about your business in the US but you can’t in China (and some other countries I’ve spent a few years in). Where I’m at, I can get spinal laser surgery and pay absolutely nothing out of pocket and well, US healthcare is memed the world over. Different countries, different worries.

Governments and politics is one thing, but getting by as average people, I feel we all just do our best no matter where we are.

As a former gacha addict I totally agree. Nowadays when I get the urge to play on my phone I’ve been doing Open Sudoku, Fruity Game or Ricochlime. They don’t scratch that same itch quite right but I’m definitely wasting less of my time and money.

Yeah, exactly. A buzz in my pocket, pull out the phone, see a bunch of different distracting stuff vs glance at my wrist, know it’s a casual message from a friend I can respond to later or in rare cases, something I need to deal with immediately. It’s a lot less mental energy

Cheap but probably won’t work I’m guessing?

If you really want a cheap smart watch there’s a bunch of reliable ones worth looking into rather than getting something random on temu. I haven’t tried the Pine Time but it looks good if you like fiddling with the tech.

If you can put up with Xiaomi they make a ton of different options. I used a Mi Band for a few years and it kinda did what I wanted it to do better than my current Wear OS watch does

For me personally, I want to limit interactions with my phone by reading notifications on my wrist, only allowing certain apps to send notifications through, and maybe sending a quick reply through the watch if needed.

That said, most smart watches now are overcomplicated bloat, it’s all been downhill since the Pebble Time IMO

I feel like they’ve had this for a while but maybe the specific situation is different. I might also be getting confused with Tapas.

Years ago I was reading “Extreme Dog Owner” while it was being released and was blocked out of latest episodes. So when the artist stopped the series it took a while before I realized the last few episodes would never get unlocked for me. Sounds like the same situation? Minus the huge piracy warnings.

Luckily I had a friend who bought it already then just read on their device.

Smart alarms on a smart watch. Set a time window where it’ll wake you up at an optimal time in your sleep cycle. Been using the one built into Sleep as Android for years, which another person also mentioned, but a lot of smart watches have smart alarms built in

I second this, been using it for years.

The smart alarm feature that senses when you’re already moving around a bit is great too, especially when used with a smart watch/fitness band of some kind

If they’re all ganging up at once, coming from all directions, I feel like it wouldn’t take that many to nip you in the nasties and go for the jugular.

Assuming there’s some kinda animal instinct where they know to go for vulnerabilities (some animals know to aim for hamstrings and necks right?) I’m not sure I could handle 10 unarmed and in regular clothes

iirc, there were some statements from companies (Microsoft?) that we won’t have to worry about AI’s effect on climate change because it’ll also come up with the solutions

I recommend the style of crutches that don’t go to your armpit, forearm crutches. I was on crutches for months a few years back and that was much more comfortable for me at least.

I wanted to bring up something like The Broken Earth series, but I suppose some people would find that woke too

A friend in high school made nude drawings of another mutual friend. It was weird he showed me but he was generally an artsy guy and I knew he was REALLY into this girl and it was kind of in the context of showing he his art work. I reconnected with the girl years later and talked about this and while she said it was weird she didn’t really think much of it. Rather, the creepy part to her was that he showed people.

I don’t think we can stop horny teens from making horny content about their classmates, heck, I know multiple girls who wrote erotic stories featuring classmates. The sharing (and realism) is what turns the creepy but kind of understandable teenage behavior into something we need to deal with

Bad times tend to pass. I find myself forgetting in the moment sometimes and yeah, life is frequently enjoyable in lots of different ways, so I try to remember that.

I feel like QAnon keeps upping the ante on the term “unhinged”

I see where people might think that if you’re just looking at the immediate context from the October 7th attacks, but I urge you to look into the conditions Palestinian people had been living under for decades, especially in Gaza. Rather than vengeance, when you look into the history, the October 7th attacks feel more like an excuse to go full throttle into carrying out what the Israeli government and hardcore Zionists already been trying to do for a while now.

Took my meme addled brain way too long to remember Chad is also a country

Truth. I was genuinely angry seeing how Spotify kept trying to buy up everything podcast related. Felt like I was screaming into the void about how platform exclusive podcasts are antithetical to the free and open nature of podcasts. I hope their billions of dollars invested into podcasts continue to bite them in the butts.