IRC back in the days was literally another world. It was something special. You could bond with other online users like family members even though the only thing you knew about them was their nickname. We have more advance technologies now but we would never be able to experience anything like IRC again. Slack and Discord servers today are not even close.
I think because you're a bit jaded and have had the experience of IRC as your first relay chat makes you bias towards it, whereas a kid experiencing Discord for the first time might have the same feelings as you did towards IRC.
Uh, IRC still exists. Not only that, but you can use IRC in the browser, on places like Freenode and Snoonet.
I'm currently on freenode #reprap right now, talking to 300 some different people. We're still doing exactly what you're nostalgic for. And, I've met a handful of them in person at 3d printing conventions. (Link: http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=reprap to chat on IRC right now)
Just because shiny new thing's moved in, doesn't mean that the old thing still isn't in use!
I'm also the same nickname on freenode as I am here. And still cranky as ever!
I will let you in with a little secret that 99% of the public is not aware of or refuse to believe. Every guest room in every hotel is equipped with extremely sophisticated surveillance equipment. Yes, every single room!
It is okay if you refuse to believe this because I know it's very difficult to accept. I didn't believe it myself until I saw everything in front of my own eyes. Just keep this thought in the back of your head as a possibility, one day you'll see the truth comes out.
What do you mean by, 'extremely sophisticated surveillance equipment'?
Are we talking about smoke detectors, meters for water/electricity usage, or do you mean things like audio/video capture of your activities throughout the room? I definitely expect there to be equipment to determine if you've been smoking in your room (how else would they know) or doing something to destroy the room.
Who has access to this sort of thing? I imagine there'd be leaks if the regular security guards had access to this, so I'm guessing it must go to some LEO HQ.
I meant video/audio surveillance equipment. My comments are getting a lot of downvotes and I fully expected it. Before Snowden revealed what he had to say, imagine if you had mentioned exactly the same things he said, surely people would have labeled you as crazy.
It's not that every single shadow in existence contains a Vashta Nerada, it's that any particular shadow in existence COULD contain a Vashta Nerada.
Likewise, not every phone on the planet is silently listening to your conversations and recording them for the benefit of the Secret Service (or NSA, or other such organization). The problem is that ANY phone in the hotel COULD be silently recording your conversations. And the probability that any phone might be used for such purposes is definitely non-zero.
Many hotel rooms now have Smart TVs installed, and many smart TVs from companies like Vizio and LG come with built-in cameras. Rinse and repeat the above concerns.
You don't have to go far beyond the recent problems at DefCon to see what will be happening next.
You will never see proof because even if someone has it, they can never publish it for legal reasons, hotels are private properties and they are owned by giant MNCs. That's why I said everyone is free to believe what they want, but just keep the thought at the back of your head as a possibility because I used to be in that position until I witnessed it for myself.
The penetration of credit cards into everyone's daily life is already too deep. Let's face it, at this point they already got everybody well locked up. Any attempts to resist from just a few companies here and there are really just futile.
Not really. Smartphone apps can be a game changer since they require so little infrastructure to adopt. Look at Venmo. In Sweden a banking revolution is taking place where an app similar to Venmo that instead was developed by a consortium of banks has quickly gotten mass adoption, recently also including at retail. I bought strawberries from a street stall using my phone.
Due to regulations I think it is difficult to find any fintech which a small bootstrapped startup in the traditional sense. Some bank tie-in is needed. And by that I might be overloading the startup moniker.
My point was that they're still tiny compared to the giants such as AmEx or Visa. And it shows that the old players can be unseated faster than expected.
You might not have visited China, then. If you stay within the WeChat payment network system instead of stepping out through bank interchanges, you see end-to-end payment friction at well lower than 1%. There is plenty of room to innovate yet, and drive costs even lower for this utility, which arguably can be a government-delivered utility at some point in the future.
Anyone who has done their research would have known IBM Watson is a scam. IBM has become a complete different company the moment they discovered that they could make far more money just by providing extended consulting service to many governments.
Walmart practically did this but with a little twist back in the days. They opened multiple extra stores within a very small geographical area. Some stores were actually losing money but it didn't matter to them because they used it to completely destroy all competitors in that area and forced them to close up their shops. Once everybody is gone, Walmart has accomplished their mission and then proceeded to shut down the extra stores as well.
In soccer you often see the coach standing on the side of the pitch trying to do an imaginary heading of the ball when one of his players has a clear opportunity to score, as if he's playing himself. Our brain is funny sometimes.
