I just want self-adjusting glasses. Progressives don't work. I'm using lower power reading glasses right now on this desktop.
Chuckle if you want. You'll get old if you're lucky.
Having been called "four eyes" since childhood, I gather that most people would want no glasses at all. It was cruel. Trendy now?
> Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality?
Unvarnished reality. It may suck at times, but it's mine, not someone else's. [2]
As for the spy aspect, binoculars that see "left and right" as well as forward exist, [0] so you can snoop without staring, though it would look dumb in a subway, the site of the latest internet explosion. [1]
There is plenty on earth, and a very high quality of life if it weren't for the insane concentration of wealth and overconsumption (think mega data centers to spare us from thinking, among others) resulting in environmental ruin.
And if we got along instead of divisiveness, nationalism, and religious wars, incredible unlocking of value tied up in militaries and relieving consequent mass suffering.
This is the "newest" article I found on the matter.
Monday 22 December 2025
> The Democrats from the House Oversight Committee drew attention to the apparent removal of an image showing two printed pictures of Mr Trump in a desk draw.
> One picture had Mr Trump standing surrounded by women in bathing suits, while the second appears to be an already known picture - partly obscured - of him, his wife Melania, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
> After the Democrats flagged the missing image on Saturday, Sky News went back to the files online and confirmed that it did appear to be missing, despite the fact they downloaded it when the files were initially released on Friday.
> The other photos removed from the trove of documents were almost all nude paintings of women in Epstein's home.
> In a post on X on Sunday, the DOJ said the image including pictures of Mr Trump has since been reposted on to the Epstein Files page.
I have an iPad Pro with the case, keyboard, pen and even got a BT mouse. Often hard to tell from a laptop, but IMNSHO, iOS is a vexation.
1, An operation I do many times a day is to get an image's link. There is no "copy image URL", even with a control key. I have to "send" the image and grab the URL. Problem is that my iPad Pro is really dedicated to my music scores and I keep email off it. Emailing a link is easiest with Mail.
2. And the other insane vexation is dealing with webp images.
I posted two days ago:
On the desktop, Preview app (and lots of others) will open and export as ... or just right/contol click and convert image in Quick Actions.
On the phone (Apple, sometimes you bewilder me), You can convert in Files, not Photos. 1. Save a photo to FILES from camera roll or web 2. click and hold the THUMBNAIL, do not open the image. 3. Quick Actions -- Convert image. 4. You can now "save" the image (open, do not click and hold) to your camera roll.
This is BONKERS
As others have noted, "There's an app to do it".
Worst for me in daily life, when you get info on an image (in the camera roll, pull up on the image) WEBP does not even show as a file/image type. HEIC does.
(MacOS will not let you search on webp images. Only by name ".webp")
3. Ios had NO file system for so long that it took me a long time to start using it.
4. And MOST OF ALL, the GhostText browser extension works only on MacOS, not on ios. Safari is constantly losing long text areas on me (I have to repeatedly copy to or use Notes or other manually.) Matter of fact,
4a. A simple wrong touch on Safari will lose your entire text area (almost always) if you push the wrong button, which is all too easy. Less of a problem with an iPad over phone, thanks to the real estate.
Haven't used Firefox on ios because for ages, all browsers had to basically be safari. I'll give this a try.
5. I rarely use the pen, TBH. The keyboard is light years more efficient on all platforms. YMMV, of course, and lack of a pen may make MacOS somewhat useless for you.
This resonates a lot, especially the “death by a thousand papercuts” feeling.
None of these are deal-breakers alone, but together they make iPadOS feel hostile to repetitive, text-heavy, or workflow-driven tasks. The image URL point is a perfect example — something trivial on desktop becomes a ritual on iPad.
The WebP handing is particularly telling. On macOS it’s invisible friction; on iOS it’s a multi-step ceremony that feels like the system actively resists you. “There’s an app for that” isn’t really an answer when the OS already knows what the file is.
Safari losing long text areas is another one that quietly kills trust. Once you’ve lost a few drafts, you start working around the device instead of with it — Notes buffers, manual copy cycles, etc. That’s usually the moment a device stops being a primary machine.
Curious: do you feel this is something Apple could realistically fix with iPadOS changes, or is it more fundamental to iOS’s design assumptions?
This exactly. I bought an iPad in 2020, thinking it would be a second laptop to port around while my primary laptop stayed at home. Turns out that while the iPad can in theory do everything my laptop does, in practice certain tasks can be cumbersome. Now I just divide tasks between different devices and accept that certain things (like any image manipulation or editing) can only be done on my laptop or desktop. Then there’s the tasks that the iPad does perfectly fine (like writing) but the thin keyboard hurts my fingers if I’m at it for more than 30 minutes or so; I need a regular springy keyboard for a proper writing session. Apparently I type hard.
In all, I thought the iPad would be like a slightly smaller laptop, but instead it’s just an oversized phone.
They could have made little things LIKE A DAMN FILE SYSTEM and all the items above symmetrical with MacOS ages ago. It had to be choice. Cannibalizing low end macbook sales? Who knows?
Really, it's not just tiktok viewers who use these.
How long did a file system take? Was Apple so certain of buying Dropbox that this was left undone?
But the point you make is a lock. These were (IMO) easy to implement long ago, easier than a lot of things we never asked for and never use.
And the only tone control I've ever seen is the equalizer hidden in Apple Music (nee iTunes) Why not a system control? How damn hard is that, given that the code is already written? I get equalizer boxes at the thrift store. Now, REALLY?
I personally feel that a great deal of value in life is creating things, rather than just consuming. So, you can say to me "Well, not everyone is talented in this area or that" and I say: "Who knows what they are capable of doing if they don't have the instruments or tools available? Or if things are so dumbed-down as to make a moat? Hypercard was genius, but without it, people had to cross that programming moat to use programming languages.
And kids? They love to create, or used to, until fed nothing but computer junk food. Even the dumbest Linux distro has plenty of learning tools (besides GCompris). All other concerns aside, the tools were free, and it was/is a sign of respect for the users to include them.
Assuming your users are dumb-asses is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Bicycles for the mind became DIY Formula 1 cars for the mind, and on the low end, we don't even have to think any more. Someone took the web design book "Don't make me think" and made it a way of life.
Secret AI man.
You're a man who leads a life of brain rot.
Everyone you meet is now a chatbot.
With every word you type, you get 10 megs of hype.
You will never have a thought, just borrow.
Secret AI man. Secret AI man.
They've given you a chatbot and taken 'way your soul. (CC, please steal)
"But lo! men have become the tools of their tools." Thoreau
I built my own S-100 computers when there were none. My point isn't that everyone needs to do that, but was excited to "do something" as in "Computer Lib; Dream Machines" I wanted to solve interesting, even bespoke problems and had to build stuff to do it (outside the IBM machine room). And at the time, one could "consume" content on radio and TV, the point being that you could get good stuff as well as junk, and I watched concerts, Bernstein lectures, and outrageously creative stuff like Ernie Kovacs and Twilight Zone. "Content" was always there, but the creative tools weren't --- until they were.
Assuming your users are dumb-asses is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I visited the local library (California foothills) during a “book sale”, and what didn’t sell was left out in boxes, either for cheap or free. What didn’t move was destined for the landfill. I was aghast, but without enough room to take in the strays. Real estate is unforgiving.
I am in favor of “little free libraries” [0] where books circulate freely, and if they aren’t returned, hopefully are read and not destroyed. They offer plans to build little libraries, and I hope to build some. “Owner” will have to build the supports, though.
I've actually worked in libraries. Public libraries are not historic archives preserving knowledge in perpetuity. You want an academic or research library.
Public libraries are nothing more than a group-buy scheme. Everyone throws tax money in the pot and the library buys books and media for everyone to use. Since one can't fit infinite physical objects in a finite space, the collection must be continually pruned and curated. Library systems track circulation figures and unpopular works get weeded.
In my case, weeded books go on the $.50 shelf. If they stay there they go to a different organization for bulk sale, or eventually trashed.
The harsh reality is that there is an almost infinite number of books. The vast majority of which will never be lasting or consequential works. Nobody needs a copy of a 1998 vampire smut thriller, and the world is not worse off for destroying your copy.
Librarians do, however, try to keep notable and important works in the collection regardless of circulation. Some books, but only some, are important enough to stick around forever, and in large part they do.
Libraries only get rid of materials that aren't being used and which take up space for materials that will be used. The goal isn't to preserve knowledge, it's to allow every citizen the same access to knowledge and entertainment as their neighbors. It's to use your population's limited resources to procure the most needed/desired materials for their money. They're optimizing accessibility and foot traffic because that's their purpose.
We have a small local company that takes bulk book (and cds, dvds, video games, vinyl records) donations. That company has couple of retail used bookstores and also sells both retail and wholesale online but, according to their owner, most of what they get is sold for pulp.
My wife is an elementary school reading teacher and runs a yearly family book night where she takes book donations she gets all year and fills a bunch of portable tables in the gym with kids (and adult) books that are free for the taking. What is left over is taken (by me) to that local company and dumped in huge bins. If you are looking to get rid of a bunch of books I'd also suggest contacting your local schools to see if they take donations.
A lot of the bad actors are scanning prices on them and selling them. Deface the title page and inside covers and they will be fine to read but worth almost nothing at sale. A stamp saying "Taken from the Little Free Library of X. Share and enjoy. Please report sellers." would do the job.
I think I'm going to get my wife a stamp that says some thing like that. I'll probably note that if it was sold, it was stolen, but not put any personal details on it. It's not like I could really do anything about it anyhow, and people would be mad if I told them that when they reported it.
I was thinking more like "of XYZ town" than anything about you personally. And since most of these are getting sold online, you want the duped buyers to report the sellers to the site where the books were listed. A bunch of one-star reviews for selling LFL books will tank someone out of abebooks or similar pretty fast.
You might even put a stamp on a sheet of paper with a note that it's in every book in the library to discourage the thieves from looking in the first place.
FROM THE LITTLE FREE LIBRARY OF SPRINGFIELD
ENJOY IT AND PASS IT ON
ANYONE WHO SELLS IT IS A THIEF
ONE-STAR REVIEW THEM WITH WHY
ON THE SITE WHERE YOU BOUGHT IT
Where I live actually has the opposite; there are ~6 within a mile, and they're usually completely full. People are always dumping huge collections into them, to where I never even have the chance to give back myself.
I don't know what makes it different here. But it is possible for them to work without safeguards.
Libraries’ resources are not infinite, therefore most of them are explicitly optimized for circulation, not preservation. If they’re allocating valuable shelf space and staff time on something no one is using, they’re misallocating resources. You know what makes librarians’ hearts warm up? For people to use their spaces, collections, and services.
Little free libraries are fantastic when possible. With that said, assuming the final disposition will be a landfill or pulping via recycling, as a last resort the Internet Archive will accept for scanning and long term cold storage books they have not yet archived. They have an app available to scan UPC codes or OCR ISBNs to dedupe.
These free book shelves are no substitute for a real library, are they? In my experience, the offering is really limited. It's nice for a random find, but that's all. It's tough that books get burned, but if nobody wants to read them, there's no alternative.
It takes the right sort of library owner to curate the library and a community amenable to helping out. My wife runs our library and one thing she does is pulls out some books when the library is flush and puts them back in when it’s a little dry. But she works in the book industry so she also has a source of high quality books and knowledge about them.
She’s specifically a children’s book person, so we made sure our library could fit kids books (picture books are big). But many of the kits won’t.
We also live in a walkable college town. There are 5 libraries within 4 blocks of ours. Our neighbors take it upon themselves to clean up and donate. We came back from our Christmas break to someone having installed a motion activated light in the library!
So under the right conditions they work. But you know what works better? Professional librarians, with appropriate resources and facilities. But in all cases, free libraries, public libraries, research libraries, etc. deaccessioning is required so sad for the op, we throw books away.
I had a lot of good books that I finished reading and wouldn't realistically touch again.
Whenever I went to browse for some books I would leave one of them in exchange. Over time, the quality went up because other people started doing the same.
To be honest, I did curate the available books at it as well.
Obvious crap (self-published conspiracy theory stuff) was thrown out. At some point you will also have to simple throw out some old ones if they never get taken. Space is limited and a 50 year old book that is collecting dust is not useful to anyone.
We have those around our town in a bunch of neighborhoods. Not sure on the usage rates, yet thought they were a pretty cool idea when I saw them, and they seem to always have books available (ie, not like they're just being taken and emptied)
Christma$$ is so very commercial. Jesus’ message is universally ignored, based on actions, and in fact the entire world economy is based on the seven deadly sins. [0] You wouldn’t want people to destroy the world economy by being devout, would you?
Pride, Greed, Envy, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Laziness.
From the cited article:
> Pride. Pride is the will to omnipotence. It’s the greatest of sins, and yet it’s everywhere: big business and the elites impose their rules on the world, new technologies are increasingly transgressive (AI, transhumanism, space conquest, etc.), skyscrapers are being built ever taller, etc. In one way or another, the biggest companies reflect this pride.
> Greed. Greed is the excessive attachment to money, and the contemporary economy is based on the constant quest for profit. The accumulation of wealth, tax havens and excessive speculation are all modern forms of greed.
> Envy. Envy is a deep-seated vice: it means wanting what someone else has. These days, marketing and advertising constantly make us dream of other people’s lives, in a competition where everyone tries to compare themselves, without ever being satisfied with what they are and what they have. In particular, social networking platforms …
> Anger. But the modern economy, by creating the best and the worst, generates inhuman inequalities that arouse anger in everyone.
> Lust. Lust is the immoderate pursuit of sexual desire. The MindGeek company, which brings together the major platforms of the pornographic industry, including YouPorn, Pornhub, etc., is enjoying worldwide success.
> Gluttony. Gluttony, as we all know, is not a passing fancy. It’s a compulsive need for food pleasure. As the modern economy constantly pushes us to consume, it also pushes those who can afford it to eat non-stop…
> Laziness. Finally, laziness is not just weariness. It is the refusal of physical, moral and intellectual effort.
There you go. We are creating tools that even think for us.
So, only a few among us actually believe in the child’s message, and behave accordingly, (actions count, really they do) or at least try to. :-)
It's all about promises made to the industry, privatization of everything.
Politics? We don't need no stinking politics because there are already US troops deployed in this country, and do you for one minute think that immigrants and non-white citizens are going to go through checkpoints at voting lines without harrassment or detention or arrest on Trumped up charges? Few states have vote by mail.
Courts have not taken action to defend the constitution. In one particular case, quite the opposite.
Chuckle if you want. You'll get old if you're lucky.
Having been called "four eyes" since childhood, I gather that most people would want no glasses at all. It was cruel. Trendy now?
> Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality?
Unvarnished reality. It may suck at times, but it's mine, not someone else's. [2]
As for the spy aspect, binoculars that see "left and right" as well as forward exist, [0] so you can snoop without staring, though it would look dumb in a subway, the site of the latest internet explosion. [1]
[0] https://www.eastcolight.com/product/99448-3-way-spy-binocula...
Not an ad, nor an inducement to buy said binoculars.
[1] https://futurism.com/future-society/woman-hero-smashing-meta...
Thanks to user thomassmith65 for the link!
[2] I showed my son-in-law a Hasselblad 500 C/M. He couldn't get over the fact that it needed no battery. Discuss.
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