ericra

Just a quick aside for uBlock Origin users viewing NY Times articles:

You can typically bypass both the paywall and scroll lock that comes along its removal via ubo by disabling javascript for the site. This can be done on a per site basis in uBO by clicking this button and refreshing the page:

https://imgur.com/a/HnCM4Su

Some articles will not load all images properly, but I have found that most do work fine.

I know this will be basic knowledge for many here, but not everybody knows how to fiddle with the various uBO settings.

For those interested in the topic of microbes living in/on our bodies, I highly recommend Ed Yong's book I Contain Multitudes:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27213168-i-contain-multi...

He is a fantastic writer, and I really enjoyed the book. You might also be familiar with his COVID articles for The Atlantic, which were some of the best coverage of COVID issues throughout 2020.

This is very cool, and I'm excited to dig in and try this out for native Windows applications.

The Windows API is daunting, though. I've worked through their examples and reviewed the documentation on Github, but it's a bit overwhelming. If anyone knows of a good resource for learning more (for someone who has not practiced in creating native Windows apps), I would be grateful.

ublock origin takes care of most of them. You will want to go to settings > filters and make sure that you have EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and EasyCookie all enabled. I would also recommend Fanboy's Annoyances filter list enabled, as it contains quite a few nice cosmetic filters to block out similar annoying web elements.

Here is a valid Wayback Machine cache:

https://web.archive.org/web/20210224224056/https://www.techn...

Excellent, thank you.

Just to clarify:

Are you saying that you have and will always have the ability for customers to cancel their subscriptions online without contacting customer service? And the only reason OP was not able to do so was because of a temporary technical issue lasting about a day?

I just want to be sure that is clear.

Unfortunately, Bank of America discontinued their "ShopSafe" virtual card service. It was a great resource, and I definitely miss it.

I suspect that major banks/credit card companies don't like this service because it brings in no revenue (at least directly), takes resources to maintain, and arguably encourages some of their customers to engage in fraudulent-adjacent behaviors using virtual card numbers.

I've avoided services like privacy.com because I am weary of giving a third-party access to my credit card for this purpose, so I do wish more banks/credit cards would offer this service directly.

I hope someone from the company will see this and respond.

I found the free version of their service to be compelling and have considered a paid subscription. Making cancellation difficult is an immediate red flag for me, though, and I would never pay to subscribe while this is the case.

Even just removing the meat subsidy in the US (or replacing it with one subsidizing plant-based alternatives) would go a long way.

I found this to be a well-written article about the topic: https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/removing-meat-subsidy-our-cogn...

Before your edit, I assumed you were not being serious. Regardless of the claim that meat and dairy cause health issues...

Bad diets generally do not make people die during the period where they are able to have children. Natural selection has very little effect. Even if it did, the time period it would take for these effects to matter is significantly longer than most people care about when confronting the climate crisis that requires immediate action.

I love VLC and have used it as my primary media player on every machine for as long as I can remember.

I recently started exploring the command line options and I wrote a short (very basic) article on getting started with the VLC command line in case anyone finds it interesting or useful: https://ericra.com/writing/vlc_commands.html

This is interesting timing given the FTC announcement for data collection from social media companies in the US yesterday.

I wonder if there is any connection here like some government cooperation happening behind the scenes. The two events have differences and apply to a slightly different set of companies, but they are both in the spirit of trying to control or better understand how big tech companies are operating (and especially, using customer data).

[Original Source Press Release](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_...)

I found this bit promising:

"Concretely, the Digital Markets Act will:

- Prohibit a number of practices which are clearly unfair, such as blocking users from un-installing any pre-installed software or apps; "

I'm curious about what other "clearly unfair" practices they are referring tho, but this alone could have implications for potentially getting rid of bundled applications on Android phones, as an example. This assumes that the clause extends to the Android operating system as it is installed on devices made by manufacturers possibly not regulated under these Acts.

I'm also a bit surprised about the inclusion of Discord here. Not only is their monetization different, but their daily userbase is pretty small compared to the rest of the list (I believe Reddit would be closest).

It makes me wonder if there are some concerns about what Discord is collecting/using in particular.