It strikes me that the world changed very quickly in a very short amount of time, and access to the Internet and online shopping is now both assumed and considered almost as important as having access to power and water.
It's also pretty wild to me how much Linus Tech Tips struggled in the "Scrapyard Wars" episodes they did without access to the Internet or GPS: https://youtu.be/9C2DHfIXKIo
To paint a picture of life in 2007: I had just left high school, and for the first time my parents could afford broadband internet (the speed was 2Mbps)
Up to this point we'd always shared one family desktop PC, and only my mother was allowed to use dial-up internet. If I wanted to access the Internet myself, I had to use the school computer lab.
Most people were using feature phones. 3G was not widely available. Public WiFi coverage was patchy at best & often cost money for time-limited use.
Seen on birdsite: "How did people used to live with laptops that only had four hours' battery life?"
My first "new" laptop in 2007 managed less than half that on a good day, and it was considered pretty standard at the time 😂
It cannot be overstated just how more power-efficient hardware has become in the past decade, and the huge role that ultrabooks played in making that happen.
Dzuk's ranking of Bond films from 1987
The pretty great
1. GoldenEye
2. Spectre
The pretty okay
3. Skyfall
4. Casino Royale
5. Tomorrow Never Dies
6. The Living Daylights
We got some problems here
7. The World is Not Enough
8. Quantum of Solace
Oh god
9. License to Kill
10. Die Another Day
UK politics / Bob rants about monarchy discourse
What I wouldn’t give for a day without any discourse in the UK about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
I have no feelings either way about them, and last I heard they’d both buggered off to America to get away from the monarchy because of stress or something.
Apparently they’re a thing people are getting mad about again, and I am just so tired. 🤦♂️
US politics
I think it's a bit early to make judgements, but I hope for the sake of the Americans I'm following that they haven't just replaced a cruel government with an ineffective one.
It is an improvement I suppose, but from what you're all tooting about it, the status quo does not sound particularly great.
UK politics / budget first impressions
This was actually quite a good budget from the Tories! Keir Starmer seemed a bit nervous & shaky in his response.
The experts will dissect it more, but I think a lot of these tax giveaways, extensions of emergency relief, 95% mortgage guarantees & the creation of free ports are going to prove popular.
Labour were right though that there wasn’t anything new on the NHS, social care or public sector workers’ pay.
uk census information for lgbtq+ folks
via twitter:
The Census is coming. For any LGBT+ person who is not out you can over-write any information submitted about you via a http://gov.uk individual access code at https://census.gov.uk/en/request/access-code/individual/
No-one in your household will be notified about your changes.
twitch live alert
Happy Chewsday! I'm hopping back into VRC for a cozy, comfy, theoretically wholesome stream. https://www.twitch.tv/bunnyhearted
The idea that website owners have "a right" to track the clicks from their emails to you and to know everything about your journey in their system is wrong.
Imagine if you buy your child a bike - does the chain manufacturer have a right to know what time they use the bike and which friends they visit?
Of course not. We should stop pretending that websites are magical experiences that require persistent intrusion.
#Privacy is a right, even though it is far from being legally declared so.
Say you're throwing a party, and it's a good one. When it's time for someone to leave, do you say "Cheers for stopping by, it's been really fun!" or do you say "No, please don't go, I'll pull out the futon, we have to keep this going..."
You do the first one because you're not a BLOODY CRAZY PERSON. Or a website.
Let people leave your website!
Facebook Just Admitted It Has Lost the Battle With Apple Over Privacy
https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/facebook-just-admitted-it-has-lost-its-battle-with-apple-over-privacy.html
Bob gets mad at people killing food blogs
Sadly this story is only a temporary relief. Vulture capitalists and techbros are circling hobbyist food blogs like sharks with dollar signs in their eyes now. 🤦♂️
Well done to all the “why do food bloggers have to tell us their life story before they give us the recipe?” people that are too lazy to scroll down a web page, you’ll soon have the sanitised corporate sludge you were hoping for. 👍
Hello! I am a cis gay Englishman and in my thirties. My pronouns are he/him/his.
I write technical docs for a living. Personal account, views my own.
I usually toot about goofy things I find on the internet, old computers and retro gaming. Follow requests are welcome. Old posts are automatically deleted. #nobot 🏳️🌈🇬🇧