I wouldn’t consider it a “hack”, but I’m always baffled by the number of people who don’t use any kind of content blocker on the web, then complain about full-page ads, pop-ups, and autoplay videos. It’s like going to a cheap motel with a lady of the night without bringing condoms.
More like going to a cheap motel and not expecting bedbugs.
Bed bugs do not discriminate. You can get them in the nicest hotels. Always check.
i used to just use like browser extensions and stuff and now have a pi hole setup for my home network, and its game changing. Even mobile apps are now ad free. Its awesome.
I work on peoples’ PCs at work (regular people and not business IT), and one thing that I do for every PC I work on is add uBlock Origin Lite to Chrome and uBlock Origin on other browsers no matter what. As 8 or 9 times out of 10 the shit that caused someone to bring in their PC for cleaning are actually full-screen scam messages and scummy ads on sites or from emails. The only times I ever randomly get someone that is upset about the blockers being installed are from either the pickup person not showing them how to use them. Or I get a random person that actually uses those “news” start pages like MSN, Yahoo, AOL, etc. not understanding that the blank slides in the main slideshow are not actual articles and are ads.
That content blocker’s name
– Ublock Origin
Mine is that, except they DON’T complain. Like when someone is showing me a YouTube video on their device and an ad shows up 30 seconds in… I lunge for the mute button while I scan the room for a blanket, clipboard, or other item to shield us, yelling “AVERT YOUR EYES!!” but next to all of my commotion, they’re just nodding along placidly like “Oh Coinbase, interesting.”
Like… Aren’t you affronted that some company paid another company to make it less convenient to do the thing you’re trying to do?! Does the gaudy, pushy tone change to too-loud propaganda designed to coax you away from your money not gall you?!
“Idk sometimes the ads are interesting. Free month sounds good.”
Jesus christ he’s too far gone.
Some of the ad revenue goes to pay the people that made the content tho.
Working in IT.
Tell the truth.
We will get lied to straight to our face and when proven they are lying they double down and get annoyed.
We don’t care that you spilt coffee on your keyboard, we just need to know it happened so we can get you a new one.
I think medical doctors have this same problem with lying and embarrassed patients.
Honestly, I was naked after the shower and just fell on it!
Ah the ol “toilet plunger lodged 1.3m in the rectum” caper.
Happens every time.
“Everyone lies” - House, MD
- Continuing study after school. Whether its science, political theory, or anything, a lot of people stop reading or studying anything after college / school.
- Doing something creative as an outlet (music, art, knitting, anything). A lot of people are just consumption machines nowadays, mostly consuming things other people have made, rather than creating something.
- Physical exercise.
- Having explicit long-term goals and working towards them.
Having time for all that would be nice.
None of those things needs a big time requirement. You could work out for 5 minute a day if you want, study for 5 minutes, and do something creative for 5 minutes.
Most people don’t prioritize vitally important things like self study.
I agree, but putting the time to make space and pull out study material has to have the value of learning enough. I do actually study regularly, but we can’t pretend it doesn’t require significant energy and dedication to produce a result.
When you’re studying for a class you need to study hours to hit those deadlines. In adult life you can do 5 minutes a week if you want.
Yeah this screams privilege lol
I would agree, except for the continue studying. Everyone has at least 20 minutes of downtime that they could put towards learning a new concept every day
everyone has at least 20 minutes […] every day.
No.
A lot of people do, but a lot of people don’t.
They may have months without any time surplus. And then maybe some months where they do have a significant time surplus.
But never assume everyone has the same time to dedicate to things.
My mom is currently working 50h weeks and I’m sure that’s on the lower end for some people. I’d prefer her to focus on not getting burnout so she is able to survive a bit longer, and that means she physically can’t.
No.
Yes.
Everyone has the time, not everyone has the priorities (this isn’t a dig, it’s a reference to some inspirational speech I heard in high school). 50 hour work week and 56 hours of sleep leaves 62 hours in the week. Probably another 12 hours split across 7 days for cooking, eating, etc. which leaves 50 hours to recover, study, exercise, or do whatever she pleases.
She values using those 50 hours to recover from the 50 working hours more than learning a new concept. That’s not invalid or wrong in any way, everyone has their priorities and values and they’re allowed to do whatever they want with their time.
That being said, everyone has the time they just might not have the mental space. But increasing your human capital by learning something new is often a great way of reducing stress. Learn to handle something in a new way, learn a little about financial theory, learn something that helps you at work. The best weapon you have against the injustice of daily life is knowledge. If you have the mental space, find the time to learn something
ETA: Coming from the perspective of a full time student who spends 6+ hours daily searching for a job because I’ve been down on my luck since quitting a year ago. I grew up poor and watched my mom work full time, put herself through school, raise three kids, and continues to fight every day for the right to live; I know the struggle you’re going through right now. Spend your time better than I did.
Nah, real “people who can’t afford [blank] are just lazy” energy here. You have no idea what others have to do in their day to day lives. To some, working 50 hours a week would be a luxury, let alone time to go to school.
You’re injecting malice into my words. The point was “if you have the mental space for it, you should spend your time learning because it helps reduce stress by being both cathartic and relieving issues in your life”
Careful, you’re going to get priviledge checked by the g*mer who thinks reading books and exercise is something only rich ppl have time to do.
Dude it’s not a dig lmao
You just have some privileges that allow you to have more free time. If I was you I probably wouldn’t do anything differently
When working two jobs in third world country. Time is luxury to sleep and rest the body and mind. There is no time for the rest of it.
As someone with both ASD and ADHD, I’m practically allergic to not learning. Blows my mind that most people aren’t the same in some regard.
Vote early. Almost every single area in the US has early voting at least 2 weeks before elections. People complain about long lines and lack of ballots on election day. You know what you get if you stumble into a polling place before that? A couple of bored poll workers in an otherwise empty building. You get your ballot, fill it out, and leave within 5 minutes. I seriously don’t understand why this isn’t used more.
I always found it weird that voting in the US takes so long
The longest I had to wait in queue was 5 minutes. Normally I just walk in, vote, had out
In Ohio you have to vote early at the county election board and last I checked it was only open regular business hours. For me that means 30 minute drive in, pay for parking, 30 minute drive home. Waiting until election day I can walk to my piling place in 10 minutes, wait in line for 30-45,then walk home in 10 minutes. For a lot of places it’s not as easy as voting on election day.
Using password managers. All of my friends and family refuse to use them but always complain about getting locked out of accounts due to forgetting login details. I leave them too it now.
That’s why you use the same username and password everywhere! Duh!
Oh yeah, i didnt even think to do that. Thats a great tip ;)
Use a pen and paper, no one breaks into your house for your password.
I don’t even write the whole thing down, just enough that I know what the rest is, the missing part is context to me.
What do you do when you need your password while out of the house? Because if you bring your notebook, then you’ve INSANELY decreased your security (forgotten, bag where it’s in forgotten, left lying around open, looking at it while people can check over your shoulder, it gets wet/damaged, etc.)
I don’t need the passwords while I’m out and if it is really important it will will have to wait, if it is really really important then I will go home and get it, but in reality it is almost always never really that important.
So I play guitar. I had a problem where I would sometimes drop my pick. Then, one day, I had an idea. I took some copper wire and attached it to a pick through a small hole I burned into it with a needle. I wrapped the wire around my finger. Now I physically cannot drop my pick.
You just made these things obsolete.
I’ve got one of these. They’re great for if you accidentally drop your pick.
They are not, however, a goddamn pick souvenir dispenser! No, you can’t have a free pick you skeezy little jerk! Get off my stage!
I bought a pack of thumb picks out of curiosity and I actually really like them. I don’t use them every time I play but they’re nice to have.
By vectron’s creaky ankle that’s a great video!
Be careful where you drop your pick, by Vectron!
Seen it before… watched it again anyway. Praise Vectron!
“I laugh in the face of ground faults!”
Mask. N95 or better. My wife and I never stopped, and she never gets sick despite being immunocompromised. I work in a place where illness is common due to the environment and I’ve been sick once in the last year, meanwhile all of my coworkers come in sick like twice a month. Apparently they’d rather be sick and miserable all the time than wear a mildly uncomfortable thing on their face.
Do ypu have kids? No masks, also barely ever got sick. With kids I’m sick 5 or 6 times a year. Could be the same for your coworkers.
My sweet friend with two childs is CONSTANTLY sick. My partner and I mostly WFH and have no kids and have gotten sick twice since 2020.
I do not have kids, and I don’t know about all of my coworkers, but I know the overwhelming majority of them do not have kids either.
Agreed. We have kept wearing masks in specific places (public transit, crowded events, airplanes) and it really does make a difference. I never get sick from airplane trips any more, which used to be a fairly regular occurrence.
I will say, I was never able to figure out how to stop a properly fitted mask from giving me a terrible headache after 8 hours of use so I’m glad I work from home and don’t need to make the choice of mask vs comfort at work.
My only dislike about the mask is that it sucks for people with glasses… If it wasn’t for that I would be using it all the time.
I liked to be allergy-less in my work lol.
I like having a face for expressions
While wearing a mask is never a bad idea, it is absolutely not necessary to not get sick. I am also immunocompromised and I have stopped wearing a mask. I wash my hands very often and never eat handheld food without washing first. Zero issues since getting covid back when I was wearing a mask religiously.
We’d rather not take risks. Plus, we’d like to not accidentally contribute to the spread of disease ourselves if we can help it.
I thought masks wouldn’t protect against a virus (being tiny) but might help slow the spread to others by stopping spittle/moisture filled with virus from covering real world objects.
How do they help you if no one else is wearing them?
Masks and respirators for prevention of respiratory infections: a state of the science review
I recommend giving this a read when you have the time, it should hopefully answer any questions you have and better than I can.
An assumed droplet and contact mode of transmission leads to prevention policies that center on handwashing and surface cleansing, maintaining 2-m physical distancing, wearing medical masks (whose waterproof backing is designed to stop droplets) within that 2-m distance (especially when attending an infected patient), using physical barriers (e.g., plastic screens) and providing health-care workers with higher-grade respiratory protection only when undertaking AGMPs. However, if the virus is transmitted significantly by the airborne route, different prevention policies are needed, oriented to controlling air quality in indoor spaces (e.g., ventilation and filtration), reducing indoor crowding and time spent indoors, wearing masks whenever indoors, careful attention to mask quality (to maximize filtration) and fit (to avoid air passing through gaps), taking particular care during indoor activities that generate aerosols (e.g., speaking, singing, coughing, and exercising), and providing respirator-grade facial protection to all staff who work directly with patients (not just those doing AGMPs)
This is why I specified N95 respirators in my first comment. If you are unfamiliar, N95 is a NIOSH air filtration rating, which is used to describe the ability of a respirator to protect the wearer from airborne solid and liquid particulates. The review I linked goes into more details on this as well. I recommended N95 or better specifically because Covid is the illness I’m most concerned with avoiding, and the evidence suggests that they provide meaningful protection over lower grade respirators or surgical masks. Another quote from the link above that stood out to me:
The certification of surgical masks for particle/bacterial filtering efficiency (P/BFE) does not reflect equivalence to respirators as the filtration is typically compromised by poor face seal. The ASTM F2100-21 P/BFE certification, for example, requires at least 95% filtration against 0.1-µm particles and at least 98% against aerosolized Staphylococcus aureus, but this is on a sample of the mask clamped in a fixture, not on a representative face. In terms of filtering aerosols, N95 respirators outperform surgical masks between 8- and 12-fold. The effectiveness of certified surgical mask material against transmission when used as a filter was demonstrated in a hamster SARS-CoV-2 model. Infected hamsters were separated from non-infected ones by a partition made of surgical mask material; when the partition was in place, transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was reduced by 75%.
In addition to protecting the wearer, respirators provide very effective source control by dramatically limiting the amount of respiratory aerosols emitted by infectious individuals. In one study, risk of infection was reduced approximately 74-fold when infected, and susceptible individuals both wore well-fitting FFP respirators compared to when both wore surgical masks.
As for one-way masking, well, it is unfortunately significantly less effective (from what I understand), and is a big part of why I’m so concerned by others not masking. I simply cannot avoid being around others all the time, and their lack of effort is directly endangering me and my wife. If it really all came down to personal choice, I wouldn’t care if people wanted to risk their health. Still, while I don’t have any studies or anything to link you at the moment specifically on the effectiveness of one-way masking, all I know is that I mask and don’t get sick, and they don’t mask and do get sick. It’s anecdotal, sure, and I’m certain the mask is not the only thing affecting this, but as far as I can see it’s the largest difference in our behavior. I’ve heard as well that wearing a respirator will reduce viral load should you be infected despite the filter, and so your sickness will be less severe, but I don’t have any evidence on hand for this.
Getting sick occasionally is good for your immune system if you do not have a condition like your wife.
Key word being occasionally, and also not with a disease that causes serious health complications, cognitive decline, and that itself damages your immune system.
COVID linked to 65% of new onset cognitive impairment, dementia
Every COVID Infection Increases Your Risk of Long COVID, Study Warns
SARS-CoV-2 infection weakens immune-cell response to vaccination
Yes, Everyone Really Is Sick a Lot More Often After Covid
Cognitive performance of post-covid patients in mild, moderate, and severe clinical situations
Being outside is good for your immune system. Being near other people is unnecessary.
Don’t we need viruses to build resistance?
Exposure to one virus rarely leads to a resistance to another one. That’s why they have a new flu vaccine every year even though they’re all closely related. Cow pox immunizating against small pox was a fluke
It’s more about being exposed to everyday bacteria, pollen, and hot/cold cycling that gives your immune system exercise.
I was much more susceptible to sickness after wearing a mask for years on end during Covid.
Where did you live? I always wore a mask around other people, but I also live in a rural area, so I didn’t need to wear a mask for that many hours comparatively.
Also in a more rural area. After Covid was over I got pretty sick 4-5 times from just normal colds. What used to be a slight headache had me bedridden. This happened a few times but gradually improved.
Now years later my immune system is back up and running again.
The level of sick for which this is true is below the threshold of what we normally call “getting sick”. You’re always fighting off something. That’s what’s good for you. Not the getting overwhelmed and having to stay in bed amount.
Covid is a retrovirus. It destroys your immune system.
Using shift + scroll wheel to horizontally scroll in a UI. Whenever I see my project manager going all the way to the bottom of the application and dragging the scrollbars to move horizontally it just kills me a bit inside haha.
Horizontal scrolling with shift + scroll wheel is so slow compared to dragging the bar though.
Which is what middle mouse button scrolling is for… horizontally or vertically, and fast, too.
I wish that worked everywhere, but it doesn’t.
Hmm maybe shift+middle button can override it on certain UIS.
Email management. Like at all. Set up filters and use the archive. There is a key to do that. And holy fuck 2432 unread emails? You should be ashamed of yourself
I am ashamed.
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damn I’ve been making a new email when it gets too spammy and keep a list of accounts for changing all my accounts over
You might be able to select all. Wait 3 hours. Press ‘mark as read’. Wait another 3 hours. And then unsubscribe as the bullshit hits your inbox
Also. Move read emails to the archive people. That’s what it is there for.
I think the better solution is to simply set up a filter for the word “Unsubscribe”.
🤢🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
Problem I have is I got my lastname@gmail.com as my email address. Many times when people with my same last name they’ll type firstname<space>lastname@gmail.com for their email address. And guess who gets signed up?
At first I unsubscribed, replied back to emails that were meant for someone else, etc. But the number of things to unsubscribe from unmanageable and it gets to be too much of a chore.
Holy cow, we have the same problem. I only got firstnamelastname@gmail.com so I only get folks with permutations of my first and last name, but to this day I still get my Nigerian counterpart’s bank statements. I’ve got my UK counterpart’s PayPal payments for artwork they did. I’ve had my Australian counterpart’s job recruiters reaching out to me for months. It’s kind of embarrassing when I tell them they have the wrong email…
Hah. I’ve a counterpart that I’ll happily pass stuff on to as I’ve worked out her actual email but the rest are super annoying. So many sign ups!
I had 6000 ish, recently went through and started unsubscribing and deleting. Got it down to 1200
Using an ad blocker
the internet is insufferable without it, and many people (including some IT people) seem to not even mind it. it blows my mind.
I don’t use an ad blocker. I do mind ads but I also want to adhere to the social contact: I subject myself to ads for the free content.
we pay with our data already
i don’t use my fingertips on public. door knobs, rails, etc. i use knuckles or fist or elbow or whatever. my finger tips are not for public use. started during covid, never got covid. barely ever get sick.
Mine is wear a medical grade mask in public spaces.
It does multiple things.
First it protects you from air borne pathogens like viruses and especially COVID.
Second, if you are confronted or people get mad at you for wearing one, it immediately let’s you know what kind of people are around. If they’re the type that will get mad at you for wearing a mask, it’s definitely a place to leave and avoid in the future. A mask is a great way to weed people out in public.
My wife has lifelong lung problems now and we can’t risk any infections. So wearing a mask is necessary for me … and at this point in my life, it’s normal now and I find that it’s normal for most people. 90% of the people that see me in a mask notice but immediately understand and don’t make an issue of it. It’s 10% of the loudest idiots that make it a problem and a mask is a great way to unmask them (pun intended)
I use my knuckles for pretty much any object that is public. If I must pull a door handle I use my pinkie (or my foot if no one’s looking).
sometimes i’ll use the bottom of my shirt as a glove until i can use my foot to swoop.
Long sleeve shirts ftw!
Palms ftw
Fact checking.
So many people just believe anything they see or hear if it agrees with their worldview.
I don’t believe you
Cancel subscriptions when you sign up, fuck auto renewals and save some money if there’s a gap before the next time you need or use the service, and gives you a chance to consider if it’s worth the money or ethical concerns when manually renewing subs.
Years ago, a family member (who was on my mobile phone family account) was getting charged monthly for some mobile game. I would point it out every month, and they were like “Yeah…I need to cancel that…”
It took over a year for them to get around to canceling it.
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Middle clicking links to open in a new tab
Using chip clips when you can tuck one side of the bag in and roll the other down.
You can also hold Control and left click to do the same. Then just Control+Tab to cycle through your tabs.
Or ALT+NumberRow to select a tab
What if I have over 1000 tabs open?
Then you have lost control of your life and shortcuts are the least of your problems.
Then you’re using tabs as bookmarks
But I have over 10,000 bookmarks!
Then it is time to use the all mighty Left Click.
I happen to know from own experience that my Firefox will become slow and crash randomly when I get near 1000 tabs. Then I discovered OneTab extension and I just all the open tabs to a single OneTab page where it can be found later If needed (but I rarely do 😅). But feels much easier than just closing all.
You mean Control+NumberRow.
This is neat.
Different commands on different interfaces. On windows it used to be CTRL but on Linux I’ve found it’s ALT more now
I saw a similar thread on Reddit about 12 years ago and one of the suggestions near the bottom that didn’t have any comments on it is something I’ve incorporated into my daily life and it has made a huge difference: Adjust your car mirrors so you have no blind spots.
Most people have their side mirrors adjusted where they can see a portion of their own car in the mirror. This leaves you with large blind spots. To adjust them where you have no blind spots, sit in the driver’s seat and lean your head over to the left as far as you can (basically putting your head on the window), then adjust the driver’s side mirror to where you can just barely see your car in it. Then lean your head over to the passenger side about the same amount and adjust that mirror.
When adjusted properly if you can see a car in your rearview mirror, you shouldn’t be able to see that car in your side mirrors, but as soon as a car is no longer visible in the rearview mirror it should be visible in one of your side mirrors. Then when it is no longer visible in your side mirror it should be in your peripheral vision.
It takes some getting used to, but once dialed in and you’re used to it then it makes changing lanes a breeze. It also helps at night if someone behind you has bright lights because you’ll only see them in one mirror instead of all 3.
This 100%. I only figured this out 15 years after having started driving.
To add to this I tilt my rear view mirror (the one connected to the windshield) a little bit upwards to force me to sit a bit straighter and taller when I look at it. You slouch less so for long car trips your back ends up feeling a bit better.
I learned this on cracked.com! I don’t remember how long ago it was, but I wonder if they had a similar source.
Wish that the mirror designs you see on trucks for towing was standard, having that second parabolic mirror with a standard mirror is amazing and I’ve had that as my setup forever now on a small car, can see everything in those.
Something like this setup also takes getting used to but seriously worth it.
Honestly I didn’t find this online but I’ve always done it this way. I’m happy to learn others think the same.
