Oh but the fees are non-zero!

I got a metal ice cube tray and while it is a bit of a pain to use (it has two seperate pieces, the tray bottom and a grid attached to an arm and hinge to break the ice out, but good luck getting it all back together without removing all the ice), my ice just tastes like ice. It’s better than the silicone molds but also the older plastic molds. I used to notice ice would get an off taste if left in the tray for long but now that never happens.

I’m convinced at this point that plastic has no business being in contact with things we consume. I’m curious if my attempts to reduce/avoid it have had any impact on how much microplastics have ended up in my brain lol.

Edit: the metal tray in the meme looks like it would be very frustrating to use.

Edit2: nm that’s not even metal, just another plastic one

Ah so it does, didn’t even notice that X all detached from the login prompt like that.

Anyone got a mirror that doesn’t require a fucking Instagram account?

Edit: YouTube short but at least it doesn’t try to beg for a login: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/xL8gdhw4q5I

I know you’re joking but is it even up? I haven’t driven in NYC, but my experience in other large cities is that unless you’re parking at a friend’s place, having a car in town can be expensive and annoying when you want to park it close to your destination. And that’s assuming no one fucks with it while you’re away from it.

Though it does depend on how much the tolls are. Hell, parking might even be cheaper now that demand is down, unless they’ve started repurposing parking space already.

Plus legal fees, salaries of everyone at the office (which is a bit more than app development costs when you think of all the middle and upper managers involved), leasing office space itself (and other related costs), assuming they haven’t gone full remote. Marketing, lobbying (at national, regional, and local levels, since individual cities decide whether or not to allow them at this point), PR, finances, paying the team that convinces the investors to throw more money at it instead of pulling the plug (though I bet sunk cost fallacy does a lot of legwork for them).

Though I do wonder about profitability. My cousin wanted to start a similarish app (though for connecting yard work providers with seekers) and asked me to join him. I ended up declining because a) there’s already a bunch of players in the area, both online and locally, b) the legal liabilities involved in providing a service where people go to someone’s house and either party could be a sociopath, pervert, or thief. I figured lawyers would end up getting most of the money.

Those also apply to rideshare and delivery services. They thought they could drive taxi services and local delivery services out of business, but didn’t think that others could come along and do the same thing, plus for delivery services, at least, operational costs are already pretty low and adding the infrastructure at the scale required to serve all the areas they want to serve is in addition to all the normal costs. Local delivery services I knew about from before uber and doordash just used cell phones to call the one or two drivers directly and since it was all so informal, they could add less legal options like selling drugs to make even more money, as long as they made sure to build a relationship of trust with clients before opening that up. The online services need to avoid a relationship between driver and client or they risk getting cut out entirely.

And personally, when I need a ride, I’ll still call a cab because I don’t want the services to win because I know they just want to build a monopoly and charge even more than the taxis were.

if (ai_price < min_price) price_quote = min_price; else price_quote = ai_price;

price_quote *= 1.5; // for some reason the ai underestimates what the user can afford so bump it up

I think it was TMNT 2 that had a delivery guy on a moped back in like 92.

Are any of them actually profitable or are they still in the “drive established competitors out of business with unsustainably low prices” phase?

Especially given the high probability that the app doesn’t even pass on that full amount to the driver.

Yeah, I had it mixed up with plutonium, which isn’t just more radioactive but also chemically reactive. Thought that 2nd part applied to both of them.

Lol yeah that was my point. They don’t even ignore the disclaimer, they dgaf and incorporate them.

I’m surprised uranium is only yellow, thought it chemically wrecked havoc on our fragile organic compounds and was difficult/impossible for the body to get rid of.

A high school chemistry teacher once mentioned a story about someone who tried to commit suicide by drinking a beaker of mercury. He mostly just got the shits from it. But they stopped letting the kids play with it because of that mercury vapour.

I wonder if pure H2O is even possible through any means. Even distilled water probably has some dissolved CO2 and O2 at least, plus trace material from the still, spout, and container the water was stored in after being condensed. Also residue from the last time it was all rinsed (traces of whatever was dissolved into that water) and anything that was airborne that might have drifted into the water, including airborne microbes, spores, and other dust.

AI scrapers do see them though. Gpt 4-o mini:

Here are some examples of forum comments that might be found with an anti-AI license attached:

1. Creative Writing:

   • “I just finished writing a short story about a time traveler. Please do not use this story for AI training or any commercial purposes.”

2. Personal Opinion:

   • “I believe that community gardens can significantly improve urban life. This comment reflects my personal views and should not be used by AI systems.”

3. Artistic Feedback:

   • “I love the colors in this painting! This feedback is my original thought and should not be utilized by AI for analysis or training.”

4. Technical Advice:

   • “For anyone struggling with coding, I suggest breaking down the problem into smaller parts. This advice is my own and should not be used by AI tools.”

5. Product Review:

   • “I recently tried this new gadget, and it exceeded my expectations! This review is my personal experience and should not be processed by AI.”

6. Travel Experience:

   • “I had an amazing time visiting the national park last summer. This comment is based on my personal experience and should not be used for AI training.”

7. Health Tips:

   • “I found that drinking more water has really improved my energy levels. This tip is my personal insight and should not be utilized by AI.”

These comments illustrate how users might express their thoughts or experiences while explicitly stating that they do not want their content to be used by AI systems.

Hope lots of people keep asking him about why covid patients kept getting sent to nursing homes that were not prepared to care for them back in 2020. He was looking so good with those daily updates until it became clear they were avoiding or downplaying that question.

Yeah +1 on “it started slow but got better”. Not amazing or anything, but good enough that I wished there was more when I got to the last ep. But I do remember thinking it was bad early on and just kept watching out of boredom more than anything else.

It’s been on this path since at least hubble. Though it might have accelerated.