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Cake day: October 7th, 2024

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  • I feel this. My car has a super straightforward drivetrain (2003 Miata) and pretty simple electronics that I can follow and understand.

    Looking under the hood of modern cars, half the time it’s so enclosed, you just see plastic and once you get past that, it’s an intertwined rats nest of complicated components.

    On top of that, modern interiors are just loaded with features I don’t need. Give me driving, climate and radio controls. I don’t need anything more.

    Don’t even get me started on all the assist features. I’m driving. I’ll handle the wheel, thanks.









  • This is missing the point that in this example, you have to choose who you’re targeting, find someone at the DMV to bribe, get away with the bribe, and even then, this is limited info.

    The difference here is that people are willingly handing their data to the parties that want it, bypassing our DMV buddy entirely.

    It’s a case of perfect being the enemy of good. I’m not saying this information isn’t available. I’m saying we shouldn’t be in the habit of handing it out.


  • These are all things that would need to be individually tracked down or requested and in government-controlled databases. It’s not just the government that has that data now. It’s the camera manufacturer and their 800 partners. And it’s all in one place.

    It’s data that individually may not be important to you specifically, but combined, that’s enough information to easily start manipulating you, whether it’s directly or through advertising.

    It’s not just about what data is collected, but also who has access.


  • I explained this to my boss the other day about the cameras he picked up for his house. He was like, “I don’t have anything that I care about them collecting.” To which I mentioned the fact that they now know:

    • Where he lives
    • What he looks like
    • How many devices are on the network
    • How many/how old his kids are
    • What times they are home
    • What types of food they have delivered and how often
    • Who they have as guests and how often

    The list goes on. There are so many things people can find out about you when you don’t make it easy. Putting a 3rd party camera in your house, though? Now you’re just handing it over.







  • A short film known as Spin, made in 2004.

    It’s about a physicist who is bicycling down a hill and a car is in his path. The driver turns to see him and hits his brakes in the last moment. He skids over the hood, mostly unharmed and begins to ponder this.

    If the driver hadn’t had the single neuron in his brain fire and trigger him to look again, he wouldn’t have hit his brakes and he would have collided with the flat side of the car, likely killing him.

    He applies this idea to quantum physics and realizes that this is happening with every decision made by any living creature at every waking moment, creating countless split possibilities for all moments in time.

    The final scene is very striking, showing a car approach an intersection. The view splits to show the car turning both left and right. The camera splits multiple more times to show the concept that you can always choose any path at any moment. Some are just more likely than others.

    It showed on IFC back in 2005 or so, and I’ve tracked down some limited information on it, but it was shot on 35mm and I’ve found no real leads on watching it anywhere.

    This is the very limited IMDB page for it.