There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

csolisr ,

@protein Many things that you'd think would be under lock and key... are not. Credentials for, say, a database of subscribers to a telephone company? Just ask the team and say you're working on an integration, they'll happily send you the password in plain text

protein OP , (edited )
@protein@programming.dev avatar

Although it’s not that simple, it’s way easier than an average Joe would think. That’s how one of the most wanted hackers, Kevin Mitnick, had his way around stuff through social engineering.

StaySquared ,

The entire pop culture is satanic. To get to the top, there are rituals you must commit to.

phoenixz ,

Nobody was asking for your tinfoil god fearing conspiracies

StaySquared ,

See you’ve proved the point, per title of post.

RoyalEasy ,

It’s so funny when people who believe in magic try to get rational people to take it seriously.

Satan’s gon’ getcha! Ooga Booga!!!

LMAO!!

Here’s a safety tip: don’t say “Bloody Mary” in front of a mirror three times or she’ll come by and ruin your whole night. And stay away from those ouija boards, they’re the debil’s pager.

StaySquared ,

See you’ve proved the point, per title of post.

RoyalEasy ,

Oh no, the devil has me in his clutches LMAO!

You definitely showed everyone this secret knowledge that you possess and didn’t come off looking like a nut who is brainwashed into believing nonsense. You sound totally sensible.

I’ll tongue kiss the devil’s ass in remembrance of you. Jesus wants his turn first though; any messages I should pass onto the “big” guy?

StaySquared ,

It’s kind of cray… you’re so offended by my statement about the pop culture, it’s like garlic to a vampire. Why so salty? Trying so hard to offend me when you don’t even know chit about me.

What are you 13 years old? That’s rhetorical, I actually dgaf about your literal existence.

RoyalEasy ,

Oh, here comes the lecture about how I’m offended because I’m laughing at some jagoff who can’t tell fantasy from reality.

It’s hilarious when people who believe in magic attribute their feelings to other people because they simply can’t understand how someone else could feel differently than they do.

Here’s a hint: people who laugh at clowns aren’t offended by them.

Besides, the devil made me do it.

PythagreousTitties ,

We know you have no idea what the word “chit” means.

Fungah ,

I love Satan. So much. He sure is cooler than that fucking cunt Jesus.

Omniraptor ,

youtu.be/_574Rxxez2c

StaySquared ,

Haha… that’s pretty slick.

However, there’s industry players who have provided video and audio evidence of what they’ve experienced within the realm of pop culture. But hey, maybe it’s all a coincidence /shrug

DrPop ,

The IRS has what is called a first time abatement of penalties. So if this is the first time in a 3 year span you owe you can have the penalties (not interest) waived.

Snapz ,

With no other realized penalty for the individual? Nothing indirect?

DrPop ,

It’s the failure to file and failure to pay penalties. The tools we have do a 3 year lookback from the tax year in question for these two penalties and if they don’t exist in those three years we can abate any and all of those penalties that would accrue for that tax year.

JackbyDev ,

Wish I’d known this. One year we forgot one of our W2s.

DrPop ,

I mean as long as it’s been less than two years you can get back any payment of penalties to the IRS.

JackbyDev ,

I believe it was my 2021 taxes (meaning I filed in 2022). Think I still have a shot? I don’t remember how much it was but it was definitely more than zero.

DrPop ,

The worst they could happen is nothing

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In ,

Chefs can put as much butter, cream, salt, sugar and fat as they like into restaurant meals. That’s why they tastes so good.

jol ,

Is that really a secret?

11111one11111 ,

No but this usually is: If your vegetarian/vegan dishes taste really good it prolly from real chicken broth they add to the recipe.

jol ,

I never 100% trust vegan food in regular restaurants becsause of this, but I think it’s less common that you paint it. I know several people close to me working in restaurants. Depends of the food of course.

Snapz ,

A bit of a plausible deniability open secret, yes. If I have a restaurant do it behind closed doors, “what I don’t know can’t hurt me” is the approach for most.j9

nik9000 ,

We knew spooks were all up in the phone network. They’d show up and ask installers to run them some cables and configure ports in a certain way. I was friends with folks who were friends with the installers.

watersnipje ,

Spooks?

ChannelSix ,

Spies

almost1337 ,

CIA/FBI/NSA agents

MonkderDritte ,

Creamed spinach goes good with fish.

MonkderDritte ,

Why downvotes?

Etterra ,

Because it’s statistically likely that any given person will hate one or both of those foods. I know I do!

MonkderDritte ,

What the hell?

philpo ,

Emergency Medical Service/Ambulances are a ridiculously low qualified in a fair shair of industrial nations, especially the US,France, or Austria.

Even in the countries with more training/physician based services (Germany, Belgium, Italy)the actual qualification of the responders varies widely - most of them wouldn’t be allowed to care for a single emergency within a hospital on their own.

citsuah ,
@citsuah@lemmygrad.ml avatar

In Australia paramedics are tertiary qualified and very skilled

almost1337 ,

In the US, at least, there are two levels of medical emergency responders. An EMT is a basic first responder, and receives 170-200 hours of training. A paramedic has more advanced training (1200-1800) and is able to perform more procedures and administer medicine. Most ambulance crews are one EMT and one paramedic.

medgremlin ,

I have an EMT license in America and am currently in medical school. EMT training is entirely centered around “stabilize the patient and get them in front of a physician”. They have a limited range of capabilities, but the training they do have is focused on the things that will kill you quickly, and a brief overview of other things.

phoenixz ,

training they do have is focussed on the things that will kill you quickly

I think i know what you’re trying to say but it sounds really really bad

But the “stabilize and transport asap but keep stable” is pretty much the goal for all ambulances world wide.

medgremlin ,

What I mean by that is there is a lot of training for heart attacks/cardiac arrest and significant trauma, but not a whole lot for general illnesses or more minor health problems.

medgremlin ,

What I mean by that is there is a lot of training for heart attacks/cardiac arrest and significant trauma, but not a whole lot for general illnesses or more minor health problems.

philpo ,

A EMT is in no way qualified to handle emergencies on their own (and yes,I know their curriculum very well). And no, the majority of ambulances are not paramedic-staffed in the US - Actually only 25% of all licenced providers are Paramedics and there are large areas which have only BLS available in a reasonable timeframe. Or no EMS at all, as ambulance services are NOT an essential service in most states. (Only 11 States see it differently).

So no, not even remotely “most ambulances” are paramedic staffed. Mathematically impossible.

Besides: The shortest current timeframe in the US for paramedic training is 6 months.

That is incredibly short in international comparisons, especially when one does compare it to the skills allowed with it.

Comparison: Australia: 3 year bachelor degree to even make it on a Emergency ambulance (not counting very rural WA&NT), a master degree for the more serious skills.

Germany: 3 Year apprenticeship to be in command in the ALS ambulance, but emergency physicians are tasked to more serious cases

Switzerland: 3 year degree, emergency physicians being somewhat common, though, often additional nursing and critcare degree required for more serious cases.

Hungary: 2 Year EMT course for EMT, 4 year Bachelor for Paramedic

Poland: 3year Bachelor as minimum.

South Africa: 1year minimum for the entry, 2 year’s for most jobs, 4 years for paramedic.

Snapz ,

Do you know, has it always been this way, or has the gap gradually widened with the enshitification of medical services to maximize profit?

philpo ,

Both.

The US never had a comprehensive EMS system as it was never seen as an essential service, both because EMS is expensive to run (especially in the healthcare/insurance/taxation environment the US has) and because there was significant lobbying against it (there is money in EMS on a large scale if you operate it in a very cut-throat way).

But the recent downturn in healthcare availability and county-tax-income in rural regions and the dwindling volunteer numbers and enshitification of medicine have all done their part in making the whole situation so much worse.

There is actually a good study showing “ambulance deserts”. (Just as a reminder: That does not mean that no Advanced life support provider comes…it means that no Ambulance is available at all. So not even one staffed by an EMT-B and an emergency medical responder. And we’re not talking about "what happens if we need two ambulances at the same time)

CaptnNMorgan ,

Dog groomers get almost zero legal repercussions for mistreating dogs. It has to be undeniable that the groomer injured the dog on purpose before anything really happens. That’s why it’s SO important to trust the person grooming your dog if they’re the type of breed that needs it.

3volver ,

Fractional-reserve banking. Most people have no idea what it is, probably a good thing. You could argue that it’s not a “secret”, but most people aren’t aware of it regardless. I don’t think most people would be fond of grinding for $15 an hour if they knew banks could just lend money they don’t actually have. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking

SoleInvictus ,

I’m always surprised how few people know about this. The banks are literally gaining interest on money they never had. It should be illegal.

CanadaPlus , (edited )

Well, they have it in the sense that somebody deposited it with them, and they have some fraction of it held in reserve to cover withdrawals.

Edit: Well, in the form of capital, so that’s actually the wrong terminology.

KevonLooney ,

Yes, they still have it. It’s just not in cash.

Fractional reserve banking works because most people don’t need all their money as soon as they get paid. Most businesses keep some money in the bank too. Banks have a required percent of deposits that they must keep on hand to allow these withdrawals. And if they run low on cash, they just borrow money for a day from other banks (literally just one day). The US government can adjust the percent of required reserves or the overnight lending rate to keep banks from lending too much money out.

Banks use this money to loan to businesses or people buying houses. It works well because whenever the money is loaned out it is used for a purchase and just redeposited in another bank. A percentage of that money is retained by the bank and the rest is loaned out again. And again and again. This way money is “created” when people buy things in the economy.

smayonak ,

This seems like an already failed banking model which places lenders at the front of the pack and will lead to only larger asset bubbles. Japan’s Kiretsu system of banking led to banks taking out loans to cover up their own investment losses as they had put their money into an asset bubble which collapsed. Banks then committed wholesale fraud by disguising such losses on their books. The Japanese government then used quantitative easing. They create money ex nihilo, swap the money for a t bill, then they bought the toxic assets by giving t bills to the bank. The bank doesn’t sell the t bill, they merely collect interest on it.

The main effect is a system in which bubbles are never popped and consumers suffer a declining standard of living in order to keep asset prices high.

KevonLooney ,

It’s not a “failed model”. Japan has issues because banks committed fraud and disguised non-performing loans. There are strict rules in the US about when assets must be “marked to market”. Plus the US has a growing population because we let in immigrants, which supports a growing economy. We are not close to having problems like Japan.

There are also many levers the Federal Reserve can pull to keep banks in check. As I said, they can raise and lower the reserve requirement and raise and lower the overnight lending rate. This can prevent banks from going nuts with lending, but obviously can’t prevent all asset bubbles. Sometimes people are just irrational.

Frankly you seem to be using a bunch of big words and implying that they make a point. Using “ex nihilo” instead of “from nowhere” clinched it for me. Also, you spelled “keiretsu” wrong.

smayonak ,

Thanks for the reply. I hope you don’t let my spelling or use of ex nihilo (this is the exact language used by the fed and economists, I didn’t just make it up) turn you off, because at a policy level they are pursuing policies that keep real estate prices high.

KevonLooney ,

You think that high interest rates keep real estate prices high? That’s the opposite of what happens with high interest rates. People can’t afford to pay as much when interest rates are high (like they are now).

I’m judging solely based on your comments. You are using big words incorrectly. You clearly don’t understand what you’re talking about if you think high interest rates keep real estate prices high. Also, your description of Japan’s economic problems are disjointed and confused, not correct.

smayonak ,

I’m not sure what you mean, but no, I don’t think that and I didn’t write that but i can understand the confusion because it’s not well known how QE works. Some forms of QE prevent crashes. The Fed can achieve this by taking the bank’s failing debt instrument off the books, and swapping it for a t bill.

CanadaPlus ,

I mean, there’s all kinds of math that goes into making modern fractional reserve banking a self-correcting system with a reasonable theoretical basis, but I’m guessing you’ve made up your mind already.

smayonak ,

Sorry I appreciate your comment. So I read (erroneously?) that central bankers had done away with the reserve ratio in the fractional reserve banking article. And that just seems like a reckless thing to do given how prone to bubbles our economy is.

One of the main points in “this time is different” is that despite the math, we are experiencing greater and greater asset bubbles and at no point in world history were things actually different.

CanadaPlus , (edited )

In a lot of jurisdictions there’s no minimum reserve requirement anymore, in cash. It’s not really a problem, because at the big bank level money on paper is barely real. If they need more, they can almost just ask. They do have to have a certain minimum amount of capital, though, which can take a number of forms.

I mixed up my exact terms a bit earlier, sorry about that. I’m not a professional macroeconomist, I only know enough to know they’re not completely full of shit.

we are experiencing greater and greater asset bubbles and at no point in world history were things actually different.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. If things aren’t any different from before, how can we have bigger and bigger asset bubbles? I don’t know that we do, really. The niche for bear investors is very full, if something’s overvalued by the whole market you and me won’t know either.

smayonak ,

Everything you wrote lined up with the article on wikipedia so if you got something wrong I didn’t see it.

I’m referring to the book “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” the title of which mocks the oft repeated defense of bubble investors:

www.nber.org/system/files/…/w13882.pdf

But their point is that every single asset bubble ended up popping, despite the protections instituted by banks and governments. They also point out that the bubbles have been getting bigger and bigger

UraniumBlazer ,

It’s a little more complicated than that. Without fractional reserve banking, the economy would be more difficult to control. I would recommend a quick macroecon video or something.

I myself took quite a while to really understand why this was legal even during my macroecon credit. It actually makes sense when you think about it.

SoleInvictus ,

I’ve been thinking about it and it still doesn’t make sense. I’m a scientist, not an economist, so it’s wildly out of my wheelhouse. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?

Here’s where I’m hung up. Let’s assume a 10% fractional reserve and, for the sake of simplicity, just one bank and a dramatically simplified deposit/loan scenario, just to minimize the number of hypothetical people and transactions.

Person A deposits $1000. Bank lends $900 to person A which is sent to Person B.

Person B deposits $900. Bank lends $810 to person B which is sent to Person C.

Person C deposits $810. Bank lends $729 to person C which is sent to Person D.

Person D deposits $729. Bank lends $656 to person D which is sent to Person E.

Let’s stop there. So we have one initial deposit of $1000, which has resulted in an additional $2,493 in deposits ($3,493 in total) and $3,095 in loans. The bank is now receiving payments, plus interest, on over 3x the amount of actual money it was actually given. To me, it seems like the bank is figuratively “printing money” and gaining interest on it. Nothing I’ve read on fractional reserve lending has suggested this is incorrect.

Halp!

UraniumBlazer ,

I’m a scientist, not an economist

I’m neither lmao. We just had a macroecon credit in my degree program, which is where I learnt about this.

Halp!

Now onto this… You’re kinda right but kinda wrong in that fractional reserve banking “creates money”. Here’s a way to think about putting your money in a bank. By opening a bank account, you are not putting your money in a vault. You are loaning it to the bank. The bank then loans it out to another person, who then “loans” it to another bank. Hence, fractional reserve banking is a natural side effect of this logic. What would happen if we had a 100% fractional reserve? Well, the bank wouldn’t be able to loan your money to anyone then. It would essentially become a vault.

Therefore, fractional reserve banking is necessary to make loaning money possible. Loaning money is necessary for obvious reasons.

Now to the “creating money” part. Sure, at the macro scale, you get a lot of virtual money in the economy. At the micro level though, individual banks aren’t creating money. They still have to get the money that they’ve lent out back. If they fail to do so, they’re going to go bankrupt. Banks would never go bankrupt if they could print money on a micro scale, right?

Okay, so now let’s zoom out back at the macro scale. Now, you can accelerate or decelerate the economy by controlling the ratio of money that is in circulation vs money that is out of circulation. It’s simple- more money in economy = more demand = more profits = more investments in increasing supply to be competitive = more work done. If this demand however drops, profits drop, and increase in supply drops. This is very bad as no work will be done. However, if demand increases too much for essential goods (like food, housing, etc.), it is bad as it can cause problems for people till the supply can catch up. The economy is going too fast in such cases.

Now, you can slow the economy down by many ways- by increasing interest rates, increases the fractional reserve and so on. This way, less people are going to borrow (you just reduced demand by this simple technique). You now reduced demand in your economy and slowed it down. The opposite can be done to speed the economy up.

SoleInvictus ,

Holy shit. I get it! That’s a great explanation and I really appreciate your taking the time to type it all out. I’m glad we don’t have Lemmy medallions to award but, if we did, I’d give you one. I now see how a 100% reserve requirement, i.e., all deposits completely backed in cash, would entirely change banking.

The only thing that feels weird to me is the virtual money the bank creates doesn’t seem go away once it’s paid back. For example, if a mini bank only had $1000 and lent $900 with a 10% reserve, they’d end up with $1900 once the loan is repaid (ignoring interest). Or does the $900 they lent create a -$900 for the bank that is cancelled through repayment?

explore_broaden ,

While the loan is outstanding the bank would only have $100 ($1000 - $900 loaned out), so when it is repaid they go back to $1000.

UraniumBlazer ,

Or does the $900 they lent create a -$900 for the bank that is cancelled through repayment?

Correct (effectively). Remember how you are “loaning” money to the bank by depositing money in ur bank account? Think about it - if someone loaned you money, and you spent it somewhere, would you have 0 money or would you have negative money (in terms of cash)?

Interestingly, this is why Nordic countries technically have one of the highest wealth inequalities in the world. It’s because they easily get home loans as the government acts as their guarantors. Here’s a vid to explain this.

Holy shit. I get it! That’s a great explanation and I really appreciate your taking the time to type it all out. I’m glad we don’t have Lemmy medallions to award but, if we did, I’d give you one.

Awwww thankssss

Godric ,

Wait till you hear about how your bank account gains interest, hooo boy

OneWomanCreamTeam ,

I’m horrified to ask, but what do you mean?

explore_broaden ,

Probably something about how your bank account only earns interest because banks can lend out a fraction of that to make money. Otherwise they would just be like a vault service who you have to pay to keep your money safe (basically negative interest).

CaptnNMorgan ,

I didn’t know what it was called, but I think it’s common knowledge at this point that banks don’t actually have all our money. Pretty sure we (Americans at least) found that out during the great depression when everyone was trying to withdraw their money at the same time.

CanadaPlus ,

And to be fair, there’s stuff in place to stop bank runs now. If a bank goes under, the government takes over until it can find a buyer, so your money stays safe.

geissi ,

Fractional-reserve banking

That has already become outdated, at least according to some economists.
Banks can just create loans out of thin air without having to check their own reserves first.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_creation#Credit_theor…

maynarkh ,

So if I understand correctly, the reason it’s outdated is not because we don’t need those pesky banking regulations any more, but that it has been found that banks will just take out their own loans to cover the reserves they need from the central bank, so they can just lend as much as they want, no seatbelts. And the central bank will never run out of loans to give, since they have insane reserves, in their own currency it is technically unlimited.

So money is not really the thing we think it is. If banks overextend themselves and fuck up, the only thing we’ll see instead of failing banks is runaway inflation in the consumer and asset (housing) markets. Wonder where I’ve seen that.

Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In ,

Not true any more. Banks don’t have to hold cash.

KillingTimeItself ,

the oh so well kept secret of the software and services (surrounding it) industry that people seem to think is worth paying money for.

Yet time after time these paid software companies produce the most vile awful, dysfunctional, and garbage software (and services) that have ever been created. While somehow a group of people who aren’t being paid, and aren’t doing this for any sort of reason other than “why not” manage to create the most functional software ever, while also managing to somehow catch the single biggest potential software vulnerability in this decade (other than wannacry) purely because ssh has slightly sus behaviors when running the infected payload.

Please stop doing web dev, it isn’t real.

loudWaterEnjoyer ,
@loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

I just wanted to take the time to thank you, personally.

KillingTimeItself ,

you are welcome my friend, ignore the fact that i don’t know fuckshit about web dev, let’s just pretend i’m omniscient :)

loudWaterEnjoyer ,
@loudWaterEnjoyer@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

There is not much to know.

KillingTimeItself ,

apparently so.

Strawberry ,

I worked at a large financial company that you’ve probably heard of. Unit tests were basically non-existent, code reviews were a joke, and I saw some of the worst code I’ve ever seen come from senior engineers.

whoisearth ,
@whoisearth@lemmy.ca avatar

Because writ large we are all under staffed and it we need to cut something it’s QA.

Good.

Cheap.

Fast.

Businesses have shown time and time again they choose cheap and fast. Good is a problem for the future.

MVP baby!

KillingTimeItself ,

yeah, checks out. Peak web dev right here.

feoh ,

Please stop doing web dev, it isn’t real.

So, let me guess. Web dev isn’t “real” but Linux kernel dev is VERY real?

I mean, I don’t take issue with what SEEMS like your base case: Capitalism is crap and money is a silly game we all play, but what I’m reading / understanding from your statement is that the millions of people sending E-mail, writing documents, and managing spreasheets using web based applications aren’t doing “real” work as well?

Not arguing, just desperately struggling to understand where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to say in concrete terms.

KillingTimeItself ,

So, let me guess. Web dev isn’t “real” but Linux kernel dev is VERY real?

linux kernel dev is wild, have you ever seen the mailing list when linus shows up?

To be clear, i’m mostly shitposting, it’s not that serious. But also, web dev produces the most routinely garbage crap and frankly unusable code half of the time, with the other half of the time being moderately usable. There is no good to come from this industry for quite some time.

iegod ,

Web dev solves a simple UI pattern kinda elegantly for rapid development. I don’t disagree with where you’re coming from but I think your last take away is a mischaracterization of why it’s used.

KillingTimeItself ,

Web dev solves a simple UI pattern

kinda elegantly

for rapid development

i smell cope :)

iegod ,

Funny enough I work in the opposite end of the spectrum with embedded firmware. But even I can see the value of webdev.

KillingTimeItself ,

i want to see the value in webdev, but the more i interact with websites and shit based on platforms like electron, the more i just want it to be fucking dead. It’s such a useless shit hole.

Fun fact, the linux discord binary seems to have a particular issue where you can bring up the “electron menu” but for some reason the base version of electron discord is using has disabled the ability to remove the menu, so if you hit alt + f, h, t, e or some shit like that, i’m pulling these out of my ass for demonstration here, it brings up a menu that you literally can’t remove.

But don’t worry, because you actually can remove it you just have to bump it into fullscreen, which disables the menu, and then back out, where it’ll still be disabled, because thankfully, it’s too much of a shitfuck program to have any form of consistency

not to mention how unstable it is, how shitty it performs, and how ram hungry it is because it’s literally a sandboxed chromium browser, which we call a “program”

Sam_Bass ,

Polystyrene is about as recyclable as any other type of plastic

overcast5348 ,

At this point, I’m not sure if I should interpret that as “very recyclable” or “barely recyclable”.

Jarix ,

And is chemically very similar to the chemical that gives cinnamon its flavour.

NileRed(or maybe NileBlue?) made cinnamon hearts out of styrene

rodbiren ,

A whole bunch of welds in nuclear reactors are visually inspected using cameras duct taped onto the end of incredibly long poles which also get duct taped together. This would be the inside of BWR plants near the fuel and jet pumps. There is also an “art” to moving the cameras and poles around to get the shots you need. And if you get stuck the talented people know how to get you unstuck. There are also cameras just duct taped to ropes that the camera handler “swims” to certain spots.

Don’t get me wrong, we have cool ultrasonic inspecting robots as well, but I was absolutely blown away by what visual inspection looked like in practice.

PS: The high dose fields make the camera look like it is being blasted with colorful confetti because of the high energy particles bombarding the camera module.

NerdsGonnaNerd ,

Truely facinating! :)

How do you get the stick or rope into the high dose areas? Or do you use the robots for that?

rodbiren ,

It just sort of sinks down. You have two ways of manipulation, the cable the camera uses for power and data and the attached rope. Between those two you sort of puppeteer/swim it into place. It actually works out pretty good and some people are real pro at it.

CanadaPlus ,

Every high-tech workplace tapes shit together sometimes, and has systems and practices that are just kind of “good enough”.

HaleHirsute ,

Is it not an issue that duct tape can be pretty flammable?

rodbiren ,

Reactor is full of water so it’s not an issue

SirSamuel , (edited )

These aren’t secrets, but may not be well known (unless you watch LPL):

Sentry Safes aren’t safes, they are fire boxes with a fancy lock.

High security locks are not high security because of the lock design, but because the keys are very difficult to have duplicated.

No one (except maybe intelligence agencies) breaks in to a house by picking a lock, especially in the US. Windows, weak door frames, and, in a pinch, making a hole in the wall are all faster ways of getting in.

Car keys are so expensive because many manufacturers charge a subscription or per-use fee to access and program the keys to the ignition. These costs are passed on to consumers

No one is picking your locks just to move things around or steal small, insignificant items. You are either suffering from a mental disorder or a trusted member of the household is gaslighting you (it’s not gaslighting though, you’re your grasp of reality is slipping. Don’t call me for a pick proof lock, just get help please)

Some manufacturers (you know, in China) will put any sticker you want on the products they produce, including UL and ANSI stickers. Before buying a product that is supposedly fire-rated, such as a fire safe, check the UL website to verify the item is actually listed with them.

“Grade 1” door hardware sold in stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot is, at best, Grade 2, and is likely Grade 3 (residential grade). These grades are really just about how durable the product is over time, and how much abuse they will endure by the public.

And just a little practical advice. Find a qualified, honest locksmith before you need one. We’re like plumbers. If you wait until you have an emergency to find one, the quality will be questionable. There are a lot of scammers out there. If you don’t have a resource for locksmiths beyond Google, look on the ALOA website for members in your area. The good ones will know who the other good ones are, and won’t be shy about sharing that info if they are unavailable or too far away

evasive_chimpanzee ,

Sentry Safes aren’t safes, they are fire boxes with a fancy lock.

Judging by the one I bought when I went off to college to keep some documents safe, they don’t even have fancy locks. I misplaced my key, but I was able to open it in the same amount of time with a pumpkin carving knife as a jiggler.

SirSamuel ,

Yeah that’s was probably a 1200 or their document box. I was thinking of the “safes” they sell with a dial or keypad lock. They can be defeated in about the same amount of time. I won’t say how, but YouTube has more than one video showing how it’s done

laughterlaughter ,

I won’t say how, but YouTube has more than one video showing how it’s done

You just said how.

(And I’m kidding!!!)

CanadaPlus ,

Spooks (including the domestic FBI-type ones) definitely pick locks. They also have things like spray-on dust to hide the fact they’ve been in a place.

No one is picking your locks just to move things around or steal small, insignificant items. You are either suffering from a mental disorder or a trusted member of the household is gaslighting you (it’s not gaslighting though, you’re grasp of reality is slipping. Don’t call me for a pick proof lock, just get help please)

I have someone like this. Glad to hear it’s common-ish. She’s “getting help” but the doctors can’t do much more than we can.

SirSamuel ,

Yeah those cases are sad. I tend to just say my prices really high, and if they persist in wanting me to come out I suddenly don’t have availability because of the “big government project” I’ve been hired to do. Even if they were worth the trouble of all the follow-up “someone broke in, you have to fix my locks” calls that inevitably come, I couldn’t in good conscience take their money.

Last time it happened a lady wanted me to install Schlage Primus deadbolts on her house because her neighbor was “breaking in and moving things to mess with me”. I gave her a quote that was 5x higher than it should have been. I kid you not, she said, “Okay, but I’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to get the money. My husband said I couldn’t change the locks anymore and that this is all in my head.” Poor lady. I saved her number so I wouldn’t forget if she called again, but I never heard from her. Hopefully she got the help she needed, but probably she got divorced and is living on the streets.

lightnsfw ,

They also have things like spray-on dust to hide the fact they’ve been in a place.

New excuse for when someone complains about how I haven’t cleaned recently.

Ragnarok314159 ,

The UL one is very applicable.

Chinese motor manufactures will often copy a design (completely rip it off) and make changes to make it even cheaper to manufacture. These make the motor no longer UL compliant. Sometimes these changes lead to it becoming unsafe, but good luck suing a Chinese manufacturer in China if your house burns down. However, they will still put a UL sticker on it and call it a day.

I used to work in motors and turbines and will outright refuse a motor made in China. Always buy motors from US or Mexican manufacturers (inside the US, cannot speak for EU). A good way to find out where the motor was made is looking to see the company that made it - and 100% your HVAC company didn’t manufacture the motor, they bought it from a B2B supplier you likely never heard of.

KillingTimeItself ,

No one is picking your locks just to move things around or steal small, insignificant items. You are either suffering from a mental disorder or a trusted member of the household is gaslighting you (it’s not gaslighting though, you’re grasp of reality is slipping. Don’t call me for a pick proof lock, just get help please)

or it’s probably monoxide poisoning.

ICastFist ,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

If there’s one thing the Lockpicking Lawyer taught me, is that the vast majority of locks only work because almost nobody bothers to learn lockpicking. Some “extra safe” locks being defeated by a fucking magnet of all things always amuse me

SoleInvictus ,

I learned to pick locks in my youth. I absolutely have picked my way into places and things to fuck with friends and family, but I always tell them. At some point.

One of my favorites was getting into my friend’s garden shed and turning everything upside down, then a few weeks later rearranging everything so it was a mirror image of how it was previously.

HelixDab2 ,

Deviant Olam is another good one for physical security. After seeing a few of his videos on gun “safes”, I looked into genuine gun safes (TRTL 30x6 or better, and/or DoD-approved weapons containers) with S&G mechanical locks, and the prices are eye watering. An S&G lock by itself ain’t too bad–about $600, IIRC–but the safe body itself was $15k+, easy. …Without shipping included, since there’s no fucking way I’m getting that into my basement myself. Most gun “safes” are not even UL-listed Residential Security Containers, and you get into $2000+ for one that meets that basic, very, very minimum level of protection. (Yes, I looked in the local gun stores that carry them.) The fact that most gun “safes” aren’t capable of resisting an 18" prybar that’s used continuously for 15 minutes is not a pleasant thought to think about.

laughterlaughter ,

No one (except maybe intelligence agencies) breaks in to a house by picking a lock, especially in the US. Windows, weak door frames, and, in a pinch, making a hole in the wall are all faster ways of getting in.

It reminds me of a friend who visited me from Colombia (we grew up together down south.) We were walking around a neighborhood in Vermont. He said “I’d love it if we had houses like this one in Bogota. Why don’t we?!” And I replied “Because they’d be broken into in two seconds.”

laughterlaughter ,

you’re grasp of reality is slipping

your* grasp of reality is slipping

SirSamuel ,

GODDAMMIT GBOARD

Well at least nothing was randomly capitalized this time

laughterlaughter , (edited )

Fucking GBoard, man!

Wizard_Pope ,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

The fact that breaking a wall to get into the house is even a viable option honestly baffles me as a person living outside the US

tacosplease ,

Our cops do it during armed stand offs. Sometimes they have a special vehicle that rips out the wall. Murica!

Wizard_Pope ,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

Jfc. That is utter insanity

HexesofVexes ,

In the UK, slot machines fall into 4 main categories. Of particular interest are category C machines, as these can remember a fixed number of previous games. I.e. the “myth” that a machine is “about to pay out” because “someone lost a lot to it” can hold for these games.

Cat A and B machines are completely random, previous games can have no impact on probabilities of winning (though pots can climb).

Online games have different rules, not always fair ones!

Oh, and ALL games (in a physical location) must (by law) show “RTP” (return to player) somewhere. It usually gets stuck it in a block of text in the manual since no-one reads them. (If it’s below 97.3% just go play roulette as it offers better returns).

derpgon ,

walks into a casino Alright man, gimme the manuals to these bad boys right now, money ain’t gonna win itself.

IphtashuFitz ,

Speaking of slot machines, every slot machine, electronic poker machine, etc. are just state machines that operate based on a stream of random numbers fed into them by another device.

The random number generators (RNG’s) used for gaming are highly regulated (at least here in the US) and only a small handful of companies make them. They have to be certified for use by organizations like The Nevada Gaming Control Board. RNGs have to be secured so only NGC officials and other key people can access them. If they are opened unexpectedly or otherwise tampered with then they need to go into lockdown and stop generating numbers until an official resets it.

The RNGs also need to be able to replay sequences of numbers on demand. If the same sequence of numbers are fed into a game and the user plays the same way then the result of the game should be 100% identical each time.

HexesofVexes ,

Extra fact - in the USA almost all games use long weighted reels.

I believe this is by law, but may be misinformed.

Also, if you know the rng gen you can game machines: a very very clever group in Russia bought up old machines from defunct casinos, reverse engineered the games, and then developed an app that let a user photograph x number of spins to find out what the seed was for the next spin, and from there told them to bet high or low based on the upcoming game. They made millions, and farmed it out to make more. (wired.com/…/russians-engineer-brilliant-slot-mach…)

Klear ,

What about category D?

HexesofVexes ,

Never really worked with them (we never made them).

I think they’re lower prize threshold cat Bs.

CurlyWurlies4All , (edited )
@CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net avatar

The cost of digital advertising cannot be justified by its effectiveness (or rather lack there of). We’ve collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars creating the infrastructure for invasive hyper targeted ads that do not get better results than simple billboards and terrestrial TV ads even now. We’ve created a global economy of marketing, media, advertising and sales solely reliant on technofeudalist overlords who’ve provided very little actual improvement of anything.

wuphysics87 ,

Do you have additional inside knowledge?

chobeat ,

Most people in the field don’t even ask themselves this question. They all have an incentive in believing it works.

There’s a book about it though: us.macmillan.com/books/…/subprimeattentioncrisis

CurlyWurlies4All ,
@CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net avatar

Yeah it’s a good book. It’s a cycle that this issue surfaces every couple of years where someone does a study, finds that the numbers they’re given don’t match their own analysis and the ad tech platform does some PR to paper over the story.

Most people selling ads are just like the real estate agents in The Big Short. The media people make their money via rebate from the platforms by guaranteeing a certain volume of spend so they have no incentive to be putting hard questions to the platforms and the client is reliant on seeing the data which is provided by the platform with no third parties able to provide any level of transparency.

Money goes into Google, Amazon and Meta’s black boxes which spit out numbers. The agency people copy and paste the figures into a presentation and everyone congratulates each other for a job well done.

lightnsfw ,

Maybe if those invasive highly targeted ads were the least bit accurate I would buy some shit from them. Instead half the time I can’t find the product I want without wading through a sea of crap even when I give them a search with specific parameters.

Ragnarok314159 ,

(Buy Washing Machine)

“Hello, I see you bought a washing machine. Would you like to buy a few more?” - Internet Ads

chiliedogg ,

For me it’s been “I see you bought this specific laser engraver. Would you be interested in buying that exact model?”

No. I already bought it, and it’s not a consumable. If I decided I needed a new laser a week into ownership, it wouldn’t be because I was thrilled with that exact model.

Snapz ,

Washing machine purchase subscription, save $3.47 each month!

dropped_the_chief ,

It works occasionally. My late grandmother loves cardinals and I was advertised a card with a big red paper pop out cardinal. I paid $30 for that card, and grandma loved it.

laughterlaughter ,

occasionally

CurlyWurlies4All ,
@CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net avatar

Yep and in order for these companies to grow they must continue to increase the volume of ads being shown, which only makes them less effective, which they try and counter by making them ever more invasive.

boonhet ,

And that’s where this article comes in.

Tiltinyall ,

Imagine if an alternate timeline is already being produced in the virtual world. The one we will all be strapped into until the death of our core energy cell.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •