I've been overcharged/"taken for a ride" by five or so taxis in my life, never had trouble with a ride-share service, even in countries where they are operating illegally. Never had a clearly drunk driver, too, unlike a couple of taxis I've taken.

When there's any kind of language barrier, choosing the destination in the app rather than trying to speak it is so much easier, and using in-app translation messaging, too. When arriving in a new country, not having to get money out at the airport (avoiding rip-off ATMs or money exchangers) and being able to pay online is so much better than cash, especially when you're not familiar with the currency.

Certainty of price, and ability to give instant feedback are great at keeping things honest. Sure, Uber/Grab etc are terrible companies, but I swear most taxi licenses in the world are owned my organized crime, so not much of an alternative. There is so much that needs to be done with regulation to get rid of the 'gig economy' and make sure that drivers are properly compensated/employed, but the app-powered ride service is just so superior in every way for the passenger, in my opinion.

May I suggest a back-up battery for your phone (I just use my laptop USB as it's always with me and works when the PC is off).

You've triggered my working with GameCube/Wii through Cygwin PTSD.

her status and authority, unfortunately, make her an acceptable target

Agreed, but It's really more that she's a complete arsehole. As a nimby mining magnate, she is a sponsor of organised climate denialism and vocal about it herself, a race she clearly has a horse in. She's also an active libertarian who wants to further dismantle the welfare system, and reduce taxation, and wants Australian workers to be cool like Africans and work for $2 a day. And a vocal Trump supporter.

It's not the painting that makes her ugly, it's her behaviour and ideology.

I am currently living rent-free in Japan because there's so many empty houses that just need looking after.

Everywhere in Japan has a declining population except Tokyo and Osaka, and both cities are well designed and don't feel crowded. I think Japan is around the 50th most densely populated country, but the very well designed public transport systems and well planned (and mostly hidden!) highways make it so much more open and walk-able than many less densely populated places.

The only place that feels crowded is Kyoto and that's because it was never built to sustain the level of tourism it attracts.

Japan has a limitless water supply. They don't even charge for the stuff in many places (like here). The agriculture industry is strong and supplies most of the food.

The country is still like 70%+ untouched forest.

Japanese policy and mainstream culture is xenophobic and racist, mostly towards Asians (and indigenous people, and lower caste people), but starting to improve based on sheer desperation because of the declining population and economy. Unfortunately, few have the language competency required to work here, and basically no one here can speak English, which makes it really hard to attract people, as the government has not put in the support measures like Korea (a more densely populated place with an even lower birthrate!). It's not uncommon to see Desi, Vietnamese and Thai workers in convenience stores in Tokyo now though.

I tighten them and it saved my monitor! Robbers broke in to our house, stole a bunch of stuff. The computer monitor was still there, connected to the computer, dangling from the table.

How do I know they tried to steal it? Because they tried to cut through the cable with PAPER SCISSORS, because they didn't know how to unscrew the cables.

I feel sorry for the dumb robbers. I hope they didn't pawn it and are still enjoying playing Wii Fitness without the balance board, which they neglected to take with the console.

I have this problem. A couple of AAA projects I worked on, years of work, got cancelled and all that exists now is "stolen" footage. Then there's the dozen mobile apps that have been pulled from the app stores (or gotten "out of date" and no longer supported). Can't find APKs or store listings, just 3rd party site reviews are the only evidence of their existence.

Yes, but the video has been deleted and reuploaded several times after been called out.

For any cave dweller who haven't seen it, here's Hbomberguy talking about the history of this video and it's plagiarism, as @Mago alluded to. https://piped.video/watch?v=yDp3cB5fHXQ&t=5071 (if the timecode doesn't work, it's arond the 1:24~25 mark.

Am Australian, can confirm. Seeing my first wild cardinal and bluejay were like what seeing an echidna or koala for the rest of the world would be like (except I went to them, rather than them come to me like the comic)... You've seen them on TV, now there they are IRL, like meeting a celebrity.

Was very special seeing a squirrel for the first time, and a woodpecker. Growing up in the southern hemisphere isn't just cool for the unusual animals we have, but for the 'common' animals we don't.

Digital nomad in Indonesia here. People are friendly, food is great, scenery is beautiful, and weather is cool but not cold this time of year. I wouldn't live here full time, but I wouldn't live anywhere full time (because I am a nomad!).

I don't agree with many of the laws here but that is true of pretty much everywhere.

I'm in Indonesia. When the rebrand announcement happened I checked x.com and it was indeed blocked. But twitter.com worked fine (I mean, worked just like you'd expect a garbage dump to).

I checked a couple days later and it was the same. Now both work correctly.

If twitter.com got blocked it must have been for a very short period and at a weird time. I can't imagine a redirect from a previously unrelated website triggering a block.

Some great answers here so I'll do something different and I'll give myself as a real-world example.

As a young adult, through a twist of luck, I found a cheap place to rent, so was able save a good amount of my income. I used that saving to get a loan, buy property, and used that property to get a loan and buy a property, and then do it once again. A short while later I now have no debt, can sit on my arse browsing lemmy in Bali (exploiting geo-arbitrage), and live off the market-rate rents my tenants pay back home.

If my tenants didn't have to pay market-rate rents, they too might be able save some cash and become capitalists themselves. I could lower the rent, but then I would have to get a job and actually earn my living again. People born into wealth can even skip that step of having to earn their initial capital.

But whats the point of owning income producing assets (like property, or business) if you're not improving your situation with it? The ONLY benefit of the capitalist system is that it allows the capitalist to reap the benefits of other's work, thus reducing the burden of the capitalist to work themself.

It's a ridiculous situation, I should not be able to live as I do, simply because I got a lucky break at the start of my working life, an opportunity that is given to the very few. The system should change.