I refuse to believe that we are the only intelligent life in the universe, even though for most humans that bar is pretty low.

When I finally “die” I’ll no doubt get kicked back out into the real world and have to plug in another quarter.

It is infact Graphics Interchange format. Not Jirafics Interchange format.

I know the creator pronounces it Jif, but there are lots of people in the world who pronounce things wrong.

I offer up “niche”. It’s actually not nitch no matter how many people say it like that.

Lookit all the nerds I triggered. Popcorn time!

I’ve been using PIA for years for my downloading purposes, as well as having a VPN when I travel. No issues at all and completely reliable. Don’t know if I’d trust them to leak state secrets, but not an issue because I don’t have any.

VPNs are one tool to help. They’re not the end-all-be-all. If the VPN provider is reliable, they can protect your IP address and keep your internet link more secure if using public network facilities (wifi or cellular) as the VPN tunnel is (should be) encrypted.

That said, if you are using software that fails to protect your user information by defect or by design, it can still leak data at the endpoint you are using, even though your connection is (hopefully) more secure.

I think all of the Toto washlets do?

My experience dealing with healthcare, ambulances and hospitals in Canada.

No matter how you get to the hospital, ambulance, driving yourself, taking a cab, etc. When you get there, a triage attendant will check your condition for severity. If you have something that can kill you quickly (abnormal heart rate, extreme high or low blood pressure, signs of a stroke, difficulty breathing), uncontrollable bleeding, some sort of penetrating injury (shot, stabbed, impaled, etc) they’ll bring you in immediately.

If it’s something not as critical (broken appendage, bleeding which can be controlled by pressure, etc., unspecified pain), you’re going to wait until anyone in the first category has been taken care of first.

Count your blessings if you have to wait, it means whatever you have is not that bad. May be in a lot of pain and otherwise suck, but it’s probably not life threatening.

When I went to a hospital with a heart arrhythmia, they didn’t break stride as they brought me in and hooked me up to many machines to monitor everything. That’s an “oh, crap!” moment. I’d much rather be told I had to wait for a bit, means it’s not too bad, and I can keep occupied as long as my phone battery holds-out.

At least in Canada, it will be cheap, if not totally free. Had heart surgery that would’ve cost $80,000k in the US. In Canada? I complained about paying for parking for the day.

After going to Japan, I ordered a genuine Toto washlet (warm water, heated, drying, all sort of goodies) and gave it to my wife for Christmas.

It’s her favourite Christmas gift ever, even after almost a decade. The only gift that still gets daily use :). We had a problem with it a few years back and sent to the North American service centre. Flat rate for a complete refurbish. Awesome!