My YT Shorts experience: absent-mindedly watch a few, eventually think "damn, these things suck", tap the "show fewer shorts" link to reduce the chance of absent-mindedly clicking on them again soon. The format, with all its annoying little stylistic cliches, is just too irritating to be addictive. (modern Facebook is even more absurdly un-addictive).

The first time I walked into a casino I wanted to vomit. I hated everything about it. The lights, the smell, the sound, every sensory input rubbed me the wrong way. If hell exists, this is it.

And yet some people have the opposite response. They get hooked.

I suspect it’s the same here. The tactics that are wildly addictive dopamine pumps for their largest cohort actively repel you and me.

Pokemon Sleep and Pokemon TCG apps (ran by two different companies) are very annoying with this. I had to drop TCG because it was much worse than Sleep with all the menus. The only reason I keep up with sleep is because it allows me to gamify my sleep and it honestly has a pretty good UI with its calendar view of my sleep patterns.

I suppose all "gacha" games use this pattern. I find it interesting that gachapon machines are so ingrained in Japanese culture because it is basically culturally approved gambling.

Then again, the West had similar with sports trading cards, which are less popular now. Then again, again, NFTs kinda brought this back for a bit with the randomized drops.

Facebook has figured out that I really like videos of people removing rust from badly corroded metal. If they don't mess up and show me something else, then it takes some serious conscious effort to stop.

Next up: tips and tricks on setting up your fortified anti-US-federal-government militia compound.

They're autonomous zones, dad. You don't get it.

Maybe the left is based after all.

Street protests were an effective tool for suffrage, anti-segregation, labor rights, civil rights, anti-colonialism, gay rights to name a few. It is disingenuous to associate this with the Waco-style idiocy.

I wonder if the CSV is supposed to list all petrol stations, as currently it only has 4 with city==Edinburgh.

Edit: after asking AI about this I would say the CSV is pretty useless as a comprehensive source of info on UK fuel prices.

It’s only just been launched. AI isn’t a great way to find out about brand new things.

Apparently although it is a requirement to upload data from today, there's an effective grace period of 3 months (sorry - got that from AI).

> after asking AI about this

Seriously?

I thought HN readers would have more sense than that.

I'm not American, but I doubt being pro-graffiti is a universal American value. I suspect many Americans aren't that into it, given it makes the place look bad. Many Americans might think instead that you should only deface things you own.

I think it makes the place look like a place where people are free and not oppressed, which is nice.

They are oppressed by their neighbors, who can scribble all over their home without consequences.

Have you had to clean off graffiti?

Why would I have to clean it off?

because you find it ugly? Because the city/HOA is asking? Because it's a political message you don't agree with (or don't want your house to get burned for it)?

So I have problems with the government but I blame graffitiers?

Because if graffitiers didn't degrade your property, you wouldn't have to clean after them?

As a renter, graffiti is great for me, it keeps property values down which keeps rent lower. And given that I don't aesthetically give a shit about it, it's win/neutral for me.

I suspect most graffiti doesn't actually have this twisted motivation. It's just selfishness by thoughtless people wanting to advertise themselves, like dogs marking their territory. This intellectual rationalisation is more of a projection by resentful people with a poisonous worldview.

I think you may have agreed with them a long time ago, when you chose your username. Have you perhaps become wealthier, in the interim?

Maybe just more mature.

Commentary is graffiti. We're all selfish dogs marking our territory, advertising that we exist.

Do you believe you're giving graffiti artists even a thimbleful of good faith by comparing them to dogs?

Is your concern that a thimbleful of good faith for vandals is too much or too little?

Too little, I tend to be highly suspicious of anyone that compares humans to dogs, it's usually not a good sign. Let alone for such a petty crime.

Most graffiti is an ugly demoralising reminder of the existence of thoughtless people who have no consideration for others and are happy to degrade the shared public space for a few seconds of selfish enjoyment. For some reason it's got noticeably worse where I live, feels like over the last couple of years.

most modern buildings are an ugly demoralising reminder of the existence of thoughtless people who have no consideration for others and are happy to degrade the shared public space for a few seconds of selfish enjoyment (or in this case, millions of dollars at the public's expense).

I wish you'd stop being coy and just tell us how you really feel.

Interesting - my annoyance with W11 is nothing to do with AI or CoPilot (or "Privacy", "Phoning home", the usual crap MS haters talk about), it's due to stuff like Windows Explorer getting seriously worse.

Seems totally risible stuff. On Twitter, I've mostly seen this story shared by British nationalist accounts, presumably because they think it tarnishes the cause of Scottish independence by throwing support for it into question.

Having said that, partisan people on social media are always happy to share stuff that they agree with regardless of the source. Presumably these accounts posted less loopy stuff sometimes and got retweets.

"‘Lucy’ claimed that "farmers have used tractors to block the A1 at the English border”, while another account called ‘Kelly’ said that “army trucks are rolling down the Royal Mile. Soldiers in fatigues are guarding the Scottish Parliament”."

Very convincing stuff. We must fast-track the shutdown of X in the UK to stop this ultra-persuasive disinfo from brainwashing our citizens.

For Windows support I assume it accrues some benefit to the unpaid support, like it contributes to them getting their Microsoft Certified Windows End User Support Helpful Guy badge.