True. Also, it has to be individual actions since we can’t rely on the Democrats and we definitely can’t rely on the Republicans to fix this from the top down. We’re actually going to have to talk to the misogynists in our lives. Why can’t people fucking act right?

Real men respect women.

I’ve been very frustrated that these guys bad behavior is being generalized to all guys. I’m viewed with suspicion despite taking active steps to make things better for the women in my life. I’m not perfect, and I have my moments, but I’m not the undatable Republican dude we’re talking about here.

This isn’t the women’s fault, but I wish I could give some of these asshole misogynists a kick in the face for fucking it up for the rest of us. Having said that, I will be ban happy as a motherfucker the next time I run public events (used to teach classes, think dance, yoga, etc.)

I saw this the last time you posted an update and am finally going to have some time to try it. I also gained some docker knowledge since then. Right now, it looks like a nice AllTrails replacement, and below the surface, I see a Strava killer developing!

Also, consider sharing to #bikenight on Mastadon. Lots of nerdy cyclists on there.

Thanks for giving me the push to try some more third party apps. I’ve been playing with docker for a few days now and am feeling far more comfortable than before. I still worry about mounting shares in the right places with the right permissions and the right way of handling that, but overall, this community’s encouragement helped me take my self hosting to the next level. Maybe I’m begintermediate now :-)

Thank you for the incredibly detailed and patient reply. I will try some additional applications like Jellyfin and Immich instead of the built in synology stuff. It was always my intention to have docker images running on a separate server but stress went up and free time went down and I settled for using the built in applications. Luckily, I havent significantly invested in video center as I just used it to preview files while sorting in DSM.

I had some issues with copying files over SMB. I can write fine, I can delete, but copying seems to fail. My guess is because the local user on my laptop is different than the user on the SMB share. In any case, I was using the file explorer in DSM in Firefox to sort through old media by hand. I’ll have to use NFS and continue to sort via Dolphin.

I’m glad to hear the situation isn’t as dire as I had initially imagined. Perhaps I’m a bit shell shocked from all the enshittification that I jumped to worst case scenarios.

They really shouldn’t be allowed to name anything after a single letter. VW, BMW, ABC, TBS are all bad enough. X conflicts with too many established uses.

I can’t see a problem with fictional characters. It’s when you bring in the real people that the drama starts. Trans JK Rowling, KaMANla Harris, Hillbilly Eilish, and Marjory Taylor Peen all seem like they would raise a few eyebrows.

My German friends and family don’t believe me when I tell them how expensive internet and phone is in the US. They all think it’s expensive in Germany. Having said that, there are some big differences in take home pay.

Agreed. I live on my back patio when it’s warm enough. I’ve gotten called out (not in a bad way) on meetings for my hammock background. ;-)

I want you all to know that I’m happy you’re here, cis het white male frat boy from old wealth with an ivy league education or a neorospicy gay trans Jewish anarcho-communist and everything else out there.

While I won’t judge you on your instance, I will judge you on your ability to be a good neighbor. I’m always glad to see humility, kindness, empathy, comradery, etc. on display.

I’m surprised I didn’t think of the EFF despite donating to them before. Thank you for the links.

This looks really interesting. I try to get stories from varied sources, but don’t particularly want it “curated” for me. I’m going to add this to my rotation.

You got closer than I did. I didn’t mention it in the original post, but I also tried duckduckgo with little luck. I hope to god this is peak enshittification because I can imagine how it gets worse from here.

Yes, I tried Duckduckgo, but also didn’t get great results. Admittedly, I could have revised my terms a few more times, but I’ve had good luck with things Lemmy recommends, and this doesn’t really seem like a niche interest on this site.

Thanks for the recommendation on all the 3 letter agencies. I bet there are mountains of CSPAN coverage out there for me to watch.

I’ll reply without knowing your situation fully. If you don’t have an emergency fund that would cover several months worth of expenses that is probably the single most impactful thing you can do with $10k. A few high yield savings account offer rates around 4%, some of them have strings attached, so read how it works carefully. Think of this as insurance against unforseen expenses that you might otherwise have to put on a card and consequently pay interest for. Pick a number and always make sure you keep that account at that number.

If you already have an emergency fund, you have lots of options. Personally, I am onboard with the folks recommending index funds. I have an ETF that tracks the DOW and it has outperformed most of my individual stocks significantly over time.

Most importantly, strangers on the internet are likely not financial advisors and may not even know what they are doing. Take everything with a grain of salt and if you talk to any investment companies make sure you understand the difference and overlap between a financial advisor and a fiduciary.

So I already responded, but I’m seeing here that you are also a cyclist! I have tried a number of watches over the years and Garmin is absolutely the gold standard for fitness focused smartwatches. Some of them, like mine, only have buttons, no touchscreen, which sounds bad, but is actually amazing. Sure I can only choose from prewritten SMS responses, but I can get there with a few button clicks while riding (even on gravel). With my touchscreen watches, I used to have to stop to reply. The TFT screens also look better in direct sunlight than an LCD or OLED. So now, whenever my wife texts “where are you?” I can send a “out riding, love you” with only a few clicks. I also send her my GPS location when I ride in the road so she can have some peace of mind. I hear Wahoo also released a watch, haven’t heard much about it.

Cons are a weak app ecosystem and not quite as “smart” (meaning it is not as filled with tech gimmicks and an endless stream of notification chum). The stat analysis of your health data is best done via Garmin Connect app or even better, the desktop website. They let you download some of the reports as a CSV, but I’ve found that more often than that, the formatting and how the data is broken up in the csvs needs some work.

Do remember, while not a Google or an Apple, Garmin is still a big evil corporation trying to make money off chumps like you and me. You likely won’t get these features and keep your privacy 100% intact

Someone close to me had positive things to say about the Wyze watch as well. If apple and android are tier A, wyze is below that, but above all the F tier temu and amazon junk.

As someone who has bought a fair number of smartwatches and fitness trackers and always over-researches every decision I make:

• See the rest of the replies for info on cheap smart watches. They’re basically a cereal box toy.
• Depending on what you need, the MiBand or Amazfit bands had excellent battery life and there used to be 3rd party apps for your phone that did a much better job collecting and displaying your stats than Zepp or MiFit (the official apps) did. I miss my 1.5 month battery life. Its also possible to use gadget bridge so it’s all 100% offline though I understand its still a bit more rudimentary than a corporate cloud-based solution. I remember the bands I got from them running $25-50 USD
• Used Garmin devices or previous gen garmin devices can be had MUCH cheaper than list price on Amazon or so. I picked up a Fenix 6 a few years ago for less than half of the $600 list price. I love the lack of touchscreen because the button navigation is absurdly fast and no mistouches! This suits how I use a watch much better than trying to put a tiny a 2x2cm touchscreen on my wrist. These are fitness watches, but some have a few smart features. Depends on what you plan to use it for I guess.
• If you are a nerd (a good thing) and want to contribute to a cool project, Pine Computers, which makes the pinebook, pinetab, pinephone, etc. makes a device called the pinetime that is basically a smartwatch that is open to the community’s hacks and modifications. I haven’t bought one because my biking depends on my Garmin stats, but I am tempted to grab one to mess with it.

None of these are fancy “smarts first” watches like an Apple Watch or an Android Watch. I found I needed less smarts than I thought as I usually carry my phone at all times anyway. It is nice to have the doorbell ring on my wrist and to reply to texts by choosing from a few pre-written responses while biking, or otherwise unavailable to text. If you really want a bunch of apps and integration with your phones OS, Apple and Android are the big two and its not really feasible to go 3rd party for the same experience.

I live in a suburban part of a medium sized US city. There is a school nearby that has similar problems.

• situated on a 2 lane collector road with bike lanes
• lots of no parking signs -they set up a bunch of cones and have crossing guards all around
• there are school zone flashers

Despite All This

• people park in doubled up bike lane/no parking area all the time and the way the cones are set up encourages it
• people swing their doors open into traffic and cross wherever they want
• during off times, the school has a sign forbidding use of their parking lot so people park in the bike lanes

Luckily, the speed limit is only 30 so when school is in letting out I take the lane and anyone that doesn’t like it can choke on a bottle of tire sealant.

My city is generally responsive when enough people comment on something and in general, you are likely to get a sentence or two back no matter what you comment on. I’m afraid to comment on this because the people picking up their kids in cars outnumber the cyclists and I forsee the school holding firm on closing their lot and they’ll probably quote something stupid like liability or security. Is it not also a liability if a kid steps out from behind a parked car and gets squished by an F350 Crew Cab Mega Hemi Coal Roaler? In any case, I think the more likely outcome would be accommodating the cars and moving the bikes into the road with sharrows or doing something like that.

If I was in charge, I’d put a speed table at each end of the school zone, narrow all crosswalks to the minimum acceptable distance and put the bike lanes behind a 6inch wide curb to make it more obvious that you cannot park there. I also want these lifted Ford Excursion drivers to watch us casually pedal past the traffic jam they create every single day. I’d force the school to open their lot where capacity permits and I’d start ticketing the shit out of anyone who stows up traffic in the area or parks where it is not allowed. There is a trail just south of the school that leads to a grocery store maybe 1/4 mile away. That’s where the car drivers could best pick up their kids. All the tickets should easily pay for the speed tables and upgrading the bike lanes and walking paths.

My wife balked when I bought a Ducky keyboard to replace the solar UN-powered, Bluetooth DIS-connected, keys popping everywhere garbage I got from work. Once she typed on it, she never had another complaint.