My employer has a “buy American” policy that kicks in for purchases over a certain dollar amount. To get an exemption, you need to identify 2 domestic options and state why they aren’t sufficient.

Recently I needed to replace a module in an existing system that happens to be made by a non-US company. There is literally no valid alternative - only this one company makes the modules that are compatible with each other.

So I had to identify 2 American made products that were vaguely similar and state why they didn’t meet our specifications. Though “Vaguely similar” is a stretch - it was equivalent to explaining to someone why you can’t buy AA batteries to replace a car battery.

She also had a knack for capturing their speaking pattern in her transcribed replies.

Same here, which is why my Bluesky feed is much better. Everyone wants to be where everyone else is (that isn’t X), and it seems like that’s Bluesky.

I’m gonna echo what others have said here. The mastodon signup process is too complex, and searching for instructions just leads to “what is the fediverse and/or activitypub” explainers.

I created a mastodon account a few years ago and it was my first introduction to the fediverse. It was frustrating and I only persevered because I REALLY wanted to replace twitter.

Once I got it set up, I realized that no one who I followed on twitter was there. My feed is currently like 2 people, plus a bunch of dead accounts from people who dipped their toe in but didn’t stay.

Joining Bluesky was simple, and there were already a bunch of accounts I wanted to follow. The recent influx has increased that, and it feels a lot like old school twitter without the nazis.

People originally joined twitter (and stuck with it for so long) because that’s where everyone else is. Mastadon is too clunky join and use, so people aren’t.

That’s a shame. If I might ask, have you ever had a properly cooked pork chop?

I only ask because pork used to need to reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit to be safe, which makes for tough, dry pork. Fortunately the parasite that required this heat was eliminated from the US, and about 15 years ago the USDA lowered the safe temp to 145. The result is so much better.

The yield is small enough that it isn’t a threat to the soldiers launching it. Still, I wouldn’t want to be the one tasked with firing it.

That’s too straightforward - this is google after all.

There’ll be a new product that integrates this feature and they’ll call it Google Slides, while rebranding the old “Slides” as Google Presentations. Then in a few years they’ll kill off the new Google Slides, leaving only Google Presentations and tons of confused users.

Link to the NASA study

The exact same thing happened to me while I was deplaning, a few years prior to Covid. Full face sneeze with no effort to cover their mouth or nose, at like 1 foot away. So I still wear a mask on planes and in the airport.

Yeah, it’s quieter so there’s fewer overall responses even in “popular” posts, but it doesn’t feel like anything gets ignored. If a post is interesting, you’ll get at least a few replies even if it takes a few days.

That part is kinda nice - the lower turnover on the “front page” means you’ll have people reading and commenting on discussions for days. If you reply to a 1-day old post on Reddit the only person who might see/reply to you is the person you replied to.

I’ll only be a carnivore on day 1

No problem! Also your response just reminded me of one key feature that Arctic has that Voyager doesn’t yet: push notifications.

I used to use Memmy before development stopped. I found Voyager had all the features/UI that I wanted and used that for a while. Recently I’ve started trying Arctic - it’s similar to Voyager but has a few UI tweaks I prefer.

Edit: oh and both of these apps support instance blocking

I am not reading your comment, I am simply traveling through it with my eyeballs. Also your comment doesn’t have gold fringe and therefore lacks jurisdiction.

As annoying as it is to lug a bag around and find room for it, I much prefer this to checking it. There’s the small but nonzero chance your bag doesn’t make it to your destination, plus the added time waiting at baggage return.

As someone who occasionally struggles with insomnia, I highly recommend the Insomnia Coach App for iOS or Android. It’s entirely free (no ads or in-app purchases) and based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It was developed by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, but it’s available and applicable to anyone who has trouble sleeping. It has guided meditation and other tools to help you sleep or identify causes of insomnia.

It requires some effort on your part: you follow a 5 week training plan and keep a sleep diary throughout. However the effort is minimal and again, it’s free. Following the sleep plan significantly improved the number of nights that I have good sleep.

Yeah they had the first functional iOS app long before anyone else (Mlem had started earlier but stalled for a while). I recall some of the Memmy developer’s comments saying they had learned a lot about app development since the first beta and had big plans to overhaul the code base. I’m assuming this turned into too much for them to handle, especially as an unpaid gig.

It’s a shame Memmy’s been abandoned, but I’m still super appreciative of the developer for making a workable Lemmy app back then. It definitely helped ease the sting of the transition from Reddit.

There are free options for federal taxes: https://turbotaxsucksass.org/ (yes that is the real URL, the site was initially created by John Oliver for a Last Week Tonight episode).

What state are you in? Many also offer free options for state taxes.

I will run this thing until it dies.

Good luck with that. My 2011 MacBook Pro still works. I’m pretty sure it’ll outlive me.

There’s an entire book dedicated to answering your question: The World Without Us.

The Wikipedia article I linked summarizes a lot of the book, but I recommend reading it since the details are fascinating.

TL;DR:

The longest-lasting evidence on Earth of a human presence would be radioactive materials, ceramics, bronze statues, and Mount Rushmore. In space, the Pioneer plaques, the Voyager Golden Record, and radio waves would outlast the Earth itself.