Power-sucking GenAI set to create mountain of e-waste
The study…indicates potential for rapid growth of e-waste from 2.6 kilotons each year in 2023 to between 400 kilotons and 2.5 million tons each year in 2030, when no waste reduction measures are considered.
AI can do some really amazing things but do its benefits outweigh 2.5 million tons of waste per year?
I Don’t Know Why Women Keep Laughing at Me When I’m Out Driving my Tesla Cybertruck
I was taking a right turn out of a convenience store driveway the other day, waiting for the traffic to go by, and noticed the driver, a female, was apparently laughing hysterically at my truck…Then today, I was at a four-way stop, and a guy in a Nissan Titan/Toyota Tundra or something smiled and then chuckled like: “What a tool.”
Hmmm I can’t think of any reasons someone would mock you for driving a sheet metal polygon that costs as much as a house and can’t survive an automatic car wash 😆
We can Terraform the American West – Casey Handmer’s blog
I like this. Terraform Earth before we terraform Mars.
The fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops
Loops…was developed by Daniel Supernault, who also created the federated Instagram rival Pixelfed. In fact, Loops will run under the Pixelfed project, according to an FAQ on its website.
This looks pretty cool! I registered an account and now I’m just waiting for the welcome email to come through. I wonder how it will hold up to TikTok. I think it’ll be difficult to pull in creators without any way to monetize, but then again look at everyone here who blogs every day just for fun. It might just be crazy enough to work
Disposable vapes to be banned in England and Wales from June
Single-use vapes are difficult to recycle and typically end up in landfill, where their batteries can leak harmful waste like battery acid, lithium, and mercury into the environment, the government said.
This is my biggest concern with disposable vapes. I use one daily, so I’m definitely a hypocrite here. One vape store out of dozens near me has a drop box for used ones and I always dump my old ones off there, but I still have to wonder whether or not they’re actually recycling them.
A Quarter of Smartphone Owners Are Unimpressed by AI
The biggest motivation for US adult smartphone owners to upgrade their devices is longer battery life (61%), followed by more storage (46%) and better camera features (38%). Just 18% say their main motivator is AI integrations.
AI can do some really cool stuff but I’d much rather have a battery I don’t have to charge three times a day. One that doesn’t go to 85% capacity after a few months, maybe. It totally works in device manufacturer’s favor though. Something with onboard AI is probably going to suck down a lot more power, run hotter and wear out quicker, so you’ll still purchase an upgrade in a year or two. Don’t upgrade because you want to, upgrade because you have to.
iOS 18.2 will let everyone set new default phone and messaging apps
…a note on Apple’s developer website states that all users worldwide can set new default apps for calling and messaging in iOS 18.2
But the big stuff, like support for alternative app stores and browser engines, has mostly been confined to the EU.
I wish they’d support other browser engines in the US already. The only thing I miss about Android was that you could actually use Firefox. Like actual Firefox, with extensions. Imagine if Google limited everyone to re-skinned versions of Chrome on every Android device.
‘Jersey Shore’ Airs as ‘Macaroni Rascals’ in Japan? | Snopes.com
The Japanese translation of “Jersey Shore” is more nuanced than the meme suggests, but the core of the claim holds up. When the Japanese title, “マカロニ野郎のニュージャージーライフ,” is translated to English using Google Translate, it can be read as, “Macaroni Guy’s New Jersey Life.”
However, when that same title is translated using the Cambridge Dictionary Translator, it reads “Macaroni Bastards' New Jersey Life.”
I love Japan 😆
Conservatives tried to start a boycott of LGBTQ+ friendly businesses. Their efforts backfired.
Several small business owners in Lancaster, Ohio, say they saw an increase in new customers after a local anti-LGBTQ+ group tried to start a boycott campaign against them.
I work in Lancaster every once in a while and it’s a pretty backwards, back woods kinda town. I always feel a little uncomfortable there because of all the jacked up trucks with Trump flags, LETS GO BRANDON stickers and even my customers who come in wearing NRA shirts and MAGA hats.
Here’s what a County Conservatives member and director of the local Family Forum has to say:
“None of us have called for anyone to boycott these businesses; we were just trying to figure out who was supporting [the events],” Burgoon said. “Our downtown has suffered greatly, and it has come back now. We don’t want to lose that again, so we haven’t called for anybody to boycott anyone.”
Yeah okay.
But the owners of businesses on the list aren’t buying it. Brandon Love, owner of gift shop Bewilderment argues that the list was always meant to discourage people from patronizing the businesses on it.
“We’ve probably had at least 200 people who have never been to Lancaster that have come to town to support the boycotted businesses,” Love said. “People from, not just Columbus, but out of state have been visiting us on the daily now, and so it’s definitely something I didn’t expect.”
It’s nice to see the LGBTQ+ community standing their ground to all the hate coming from the shit head conservatives who want to run them out, or at the very least force them back into the closet. Even more heartwarming to know people are flocking to this forgotten little town to show their support. I’ll never understand why some people are so hellbent on dehumanizing other people who are a little different than them.