manxu

Not original commenter, but the basic idea is this: the rise of the dollar with respect to the Euro is the normal reaction of a sudden shock in oil trade. Countries that export oil (e.g. the USA) see a rise in their currency, countries that import a fall. That’s a natural consequence of Euro-countries needing dollars to buy oil.

The talk about Treasuries is at cross purposes: from a low just under 4% before the war, 10 year notes are now above 4.25%. That is the interest rate the US government has to pay to investors for the specific period of ten years.

If the rise in the dollar were caused by “safe asset” mechanics, then people would want to buy US Treasuries. This would reduce their interest rates, since the government could get them sold at a lower rate. Instead, investors want more money for US debt, indicating they are not comfortable with the long-term prospects of this war. (or the US economy more in general).

The big problem right now is that US debt and deficit are historically very high. High deficit means the government has to borrow money to cover what’s missing. If interest rates rise, then the government has higher interest payments to pay. That increases the deficit, which means even more money needs to be borrowed. The more the government must borrow, the higher the interest rates investors demand. If America isn’t careful, this could all end up with something like the Eurozone crisis of the 2010s, only much worse.

It feels like the factors of authentication discussion misses one important aspect: can the factor be replayed. Passwords can be replayed indefinitely, while the email links you get or the OTP token only work for a short period of time.

I remember it from the bad days when I used LastPass. Suddenly I got a notification that the place had been compromised and I had to suddenly change hundreds of passwords. 90% of them were for sites that didn’t even exist any longer, but sifting through the long, long list to go change passwords was more work than I wanted to do.

Don’t have to do that if I need to use a one-time token via Aegis or email! I do agree, though, that for low risk sites, username/password is totally fine.

I think the big question is what kind of IG user are your contacts. If they are on the platform to look at what the Kardashians are up to, or the big influencers, then lack of monetization on Pixelfed means your contacts will miss the content from IG.

If it’s people that exchange pictures and don’t care what famous people do, then maybe switch to Pixelfed and continue posting a reduced amount to IG, with the information that most of your posts are on Pixelfed. And maybe, once in a while you could post a screenshot of your Pixelfed feed on IG, so that people can see the quality of other people’s content.

It goes both ways. If the artist has to do 30% of the work, what about collages? Do we have to count the square millimeters of each cut and paste item to ensure they are above the threshold?

But think of the fireworks! /s

I do, but only in the sense that I never buy or wear any clothing with a brand name displayed on it.

Thanks for the positive attitude, beautiful stranger!

I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to start college, to take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and not to have the faintest idea if there is actually going to be a job at the end of all that work. At least, where I live college is almost free.

Same place as the famous banana quote! How much could a banana cost, Michael? $10?

I’ve always had deep suspicion of GNOME because of de Icaza’s involvement and the pretexts with which the project was started. Knowing that de Icaza ended up at Microsoft and is now a huge fan of MacOS and Apple confirmed my suspicions. Lucille Bluth is right, there I said it. 😍

I would agree. I find that AI does have useful applications, for example in language translation, medical imaging, etc.

I mean, the idea that all white-collar jobs could be automated is obviously stupid. But even if just 50% could be made redundant by increased productivity, or 20%, that would generate enormous downward pressure on wages and salaries and turn this kind of job into college-degree burger flipping, economically.

The world went through the very similar blue-collar job destruction in the 80s and 90s. Back then, Conservatives decided this was all a Very Good Thing, and Neoliberals shrugged. The made vast swaths of industrial areas suddenly derelict and impoverished. It’s hard to believe that Detroit was once one of the wealthiest cities in America.

We must tax companies that use AI to reduce workforce to offset cost benefits. Society will have to deal with the suddenly impoverished accountants and lawyers and needs extra revenue.

The worst part of this AI revolution is that it affects most directly those that have the least experience, as it’s easier to replace an entrant with software. Yet another way young people are screwed, yet another way society absolutely needs to step in to make sure the next generation has a fighting chance.

As a lifelong European and Europist, I am slightly disappointed that it took external events to push the Union together, but I am not complaining about the outcome.

Wiki says

It was a financial success, grossing $24.9 million against a production budget of $3 million.

Confused look???

xAI business model: hype  
SpaceX business model: government contracts  

The contracts stay when the hype dies. By merging the two companies, Musk avoids the collapse of one. To make this work, he needs more government contracts - I see a lot of groveling and boot licking in his immediate future.

Go, BentoPDF! A shame this stuff cost you time and energy better spent elsewhere, but it’s just a small hiccup for a project with legs!

I start having a hard time understanding why European governments keep pretending the USA is a close ally. I would think the threat to annex territory is enough of a red line.

Define “worse.” Qatar definitely didn’t threaten to invade EU territory and annex it.

I’ll be damned, you did! 👍

The 90s in Italy brought some decent rap. Here is Jo Vanotti’s Serenata Rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MgKG87M0sc

Well yes, but also it’s much easier for China to eat the losses than for Europe, since a lot of the Treasuries are privately owned