froddd (u/froddd) - Readit News

froddd commented on End well, this won't: UK commissioner suggests govt stops kids from using VPNs theregister.com/2025/08/1... · Posted by u/rntn

exasperaited · 5 days ago

I don't see where the problem is here, actually.

Most VPNs that are trustworthy and good for video are paid products, right?

So the VPN provider literally only has to prevent UK customers using debit cards to pay.

Problem solved.

froddd · 5 days ago

Why would a VPN provider do that?

froddd commented on “No tax on tips” is an industry plant newyorker.com/magazine/20... · Posted by u/littlexsparkee

logifail · 24 days ago

> when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given [...] why would I give a reward for good service

Are there still customers giving tips as "a reward for good service"?

I'm trying to imagine a curve representing the distribution of "quality of service".

What shape is the curve, and where on it would a 20% tip and a 0% tip be?

froddd · 24 days ago

> Are there still customers giving tips as "a reward for good service"?

Sad if this is no longer the case.

In the UK at least (and the rest of Europe too, as far as I can tell), this is still very much the case. The curve varies with the individuals tipping. I would be quite happy to give 20% if the service was outstanding. I’m equally happy to not tip at all if the service was very poor.

froddd commented on Tesla sales decline in Europe for fifth straight month as rivals gain ground timeslive.co.za/motoring/... · Posted by u/Bluestein

pjmlp · 2 months ago

Because of the water cooling and all forms of producing energy that it entails.

It is like loving the planet eating soja, while ignoring the forests being destroyed to satisfy demand as planting fields.

Or farmable fields now being solar panel fields, because it is more profitable to sell energy, than living the farmer life, earning pennies for a hard work life, while kids die every day of lack of nutrition.

To fix the planet, first we need to get rid of profit driven societies.

froddd · 2 months ago

Soya is a bad analogy here. When forests are being destroyed to grow soya, it isn’t primarily soy to feed humans, but to feed cattle/stock to then feed humans. This is an order of magnitude more destructive.

Edit: fully agree with the sentiment, getting rid of the profit-driven mindset would be beneficial to all.

froddd commented on Chimpanzees yawn when observing an android yawn nature.com/articles/s4159... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

airstrike · 2 months ago

Sounds like we need to test if people yawn after imagining someone else yawning

froddd · 2 months ago

I can confirm. Sample of one, mind.

froddd commented on Should we design for iffy internet? bytes.zone/posts/should-w... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

rendaw · 2 months ago

Also subways, and people with cheap data plans that get throttled after 1GB. Google maps regularly says "no results found" because the connection times out.

froddd · 2 months ago

I’ve found Google Maps to be one of the worst offenders, often getting in a pickle when my phone is switching between 4G and 5G. What’s frustrating is that the state it gets in is irrecoverable: the only thing that works then is force-quitting, then reopening the app.

froddd commented on Bike-mounted sensor could boost the mapping of safe cycling routes newatlas.com/bicycles/pro... · Posted by u/yunusabd

s1mon · 3 months ago

There are a number of commercial solutions in this space. It's weird when there's a press release like this that acts like their solution is completely novel and unrelated to anything else.

Roadio has front and rear facing cameras with AI driven object detection to help keep cyclists and motor scooter riders safer.

https://www.roadio.com

Garmin (amongst others) has had a rear mounted radar (and bike light) system for a while. They also have one with a camera built in.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/698001/

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/721258/

froddd · 3 months ago

Roadio is primarily a camera and costs around $265 USD. The Garmin is also a camera and also costs over $300 USD. Neither reports to a central service to map the results for other users.

froddd commented on WeightWatchers files bankruptcy wsj.com/articles/weightwa... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

mindwok · 4 months ago

Even if that were the case, exercise can still be enjoyable for its own sake - and the high of having done it means the hours after are more enjoyable, too.

froddd · 4 months ago

Alongside the quality of life and mental health improvements, too — some clear positives.

froddd commented on A Map of British Dialects (2023) starkeycomics.com/2023/11... · Posted by u/gregorvand

casenmgreen · 4 months ago

I may be completely wrong, but I think one direction of evolution in pronunciation is the gradual shift to that which takes less physical effort to pronounce.

"Bedder" is less physical work, less effort, in the mouth than "better".

froddd · 4 months ago

“Be’er” seems like even less work. For some people

froddd commented on A Postmortem of a Startup buildwithtract.com/... · Posted by u/jamierumbelow

matt-p · 4 months ago

reductionist in this case is not a bad thing. We need a major change to fix this situation and doing some little tweaks like increasing taxes on second homes or holiday homes does not actually fix this (we already tax those specific cases, with things like second home stamp duty or in some areas second home council tax).

You have

A - Demand (immigration of 1 Million per year)

Or

B - Supply (building only 120,000 houses per year)

We MUST fix one or both of these sides of the equation. Holiday homes aren't going to add up to a row of beans quite frankly (and will have very negative effects on the tourism industry, not so bad in London - but might be quite an impact in cornwall for example).

froddd · 4 months ago

Holiday homes have quite the impact in many parts of Wales.

Occupancy ratings per house seem to be quite low on average [1], but weirdly I can’t seem to find any figures for overall occupancy.

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/housing/...

Edit: clarification

froddd commented on A Postmortem of a Startup buildwithtract.com/... · Posted by u/jamierumbelow

philipallstar · 4 months ago

> Housing in Britain is expensive because getting planning permission is difficult.

It's true that planning departments are very expensive, don't do much positively, and still seem to allow awful-looking things to be built, and I'd probably happily do away with them, but the fundamental driver is the incredible onboarding of people from overseas for years that crushes the combination of the existing population and the new people into a number of dwellings that isn't that dissimilar to the previous year.

You can't take on a net number of people each year that would require a new city the size of Nottingham to be built to accommodate, and say "well, it's all the planning process' fault."

froddd · 4 months ago

Reducing the problem to ‘people coming from overseas’ is an equally reductionist argument.

There are properties going unused, for very many reasons. Second homes, holiday homes, etc. This also drives the price of properties up. This is one of the inputs to the problem. Planning permission laws is another input. The size and change of size of the people needing housing is another input.