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Joined 4 months ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2025

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  • I would argue that a large chunk of the people you describe above are not “trying to think about things”, they’re just trying to get to point B. They’ve got a goal, after all.

    This might be a me thing. I am never not thinking, planning, solving problems. My brain doesn’t do idle very easily.

    People on the bus or train are just people.

    You’re from a different culture probably. Literally, most people don’t want unsolicited interactions where I’m from. If someone’s approaching you to start a conversation out of the blue, they’re going to be asking you for booze or cigarettes. Or money. Or they already got their booze and now they’re making small talk. And for 50% of the population, the other 50% of the population can be seen as threatening based on gender alone. So it’s polite to just shut up and let other people be. You gotta have a reason for talking to people who aren’t expecting to be talked to. Not bothering anyone is part of our culture. You don’t go to the ER unless there’s an axe in your skull, because going there just because you’re only MILDLY dying, would be bothering the doctors and nurses and all in all just too much of a fuss.



    1. Monopolies are a thing and the first few to the market with self driving systems will be ubiquitous. You can’t avoid it. Waymo/Google will license their solution to car manufacturers, who will be stuck with it because it’s going to be very expensive to get their own self driving certified in all their target markets.
    2. Yes, let’s limit everyone to either walking/cycling, public transit, or megacorporation control over their freedom of movement. There’s certainly not a western government currently rounding up dissidents that would just tell their beloved corporations to drive people with certain backgrounds to Alligator Alcatraz.
    3. Yes, but why are we giving them even more control over our lives voluntarily? Especially since we’re talking about something that can literally lock its doors and drive you to somewhere you didn’t want to go.

    I’ve never been much of a conspiracy nut, but this is where I agree with them. I don’t want government and corporations to say when and where I can go. Walking is an option for me 90% of the time, and one I take very often, but what if I literally need to fucking escape an invasion? Considering it’s happening right now, 4 countries south of me, and said invader has demonstrated that they love taking down communications networks, what the fuck options am I going to have left if I need to drive 1000 km in a day and my car’s like “No Internet connection, I’m staying put”? If you’re in the US you don’t have THAT risk, but you still have the whole issue of a dictator being able to decide where you’re driving. Public transit is great, but it’s not ready for mass surges of people fleeing and if someone’s after you personally, it creates choke points (stations) where it’s easy to grab you. I’m not saying cars are super hard to track, but when there are a lot of targets, everyone being spread out means it’s harder to get a lot of people at once.


  • It is great fun! That’s why I essentially lived at a bar for over a year and nearly always went alone. So many chance encounters and some people I still talk to. Plus even if you’re away for a year or 2, the regulars will remember you and come talk to you. Downside was spending 500 euros a month or more on beer.

    But public transport? Nobody wants to be there. You’ve got a goal and it’s not socialising, it’s getting somewhere. Maybe you’re anxious about going to the doctor, maybe you’re anticipating a shitty workday. It’s annoying to have to talk to other people when you’re trying to think about things.

    In our culture this is seen as normal: you keep to yourself in public unless at some place where socialising is the norm. And small talk is really hard for us. Other than the weather, wtf do you talk about even. That’s why you don’t surprise attack people with small talk.









  • It definitely differs between implementations. I hear Distronic Plus on a W212 Mercedes (so 2009-2016 E-Class) was fairly good for its era, with smooth braking, but I’m biased because pre-touchscreen-hell Mercedes cars are something I have a soft spot for (so pretty much anything made before this decade, really - they kept touchscreens out of the equation for longer than Audi at least). On W211s you could get regular Distronic, which didn’t come to a complete stop, it was only meant for highway use. Also all these systems were optional back then, so you can’t buy cars blindly. Hell, I bought a 2019 C-Class being pretty sure it had ACC and it… did not.

    I unfortunately can’t give any advice on Japanese cars, I’ve only owned a Subaru. The ACC in that was a bit janky, though it never hit anyone so it definitely worked. Most of the time. It complained about lack of sight fairly often, since it was a camera based system unlike the radar or lidar systems most seem to use.



  • In case you actually ever need a car and want ACC:

    Adaptive cruise became available in the 1998 Mercedes-Benz S-Class and in the early to mid 2000s expanded to executive cars of different marques and then later on, towards smaller/cheaper cars.

    There absolutely are cars you can get that have adaptive cruise, that don’t have any network connectivity beyond the built-in cellphone (because they used to do that) or Bluetooth to connect your phone.






  • I’d just recommend Pop!_OS then. NVidia drivers can come preinstalled if you need them (not that it’s super hard to install on Ubuntu) and no Snap bullshit - anything you install via apt uses a deb, instead of sneakily installing a snap. Flatpak still remains an option and you CAN install snaps if you want to. COSMIC as it is now, is GNOME reconfigured a bit to be a bit keyboard-friendlier and will soon be replaced by COSMIC the brand new desktop environment. Otherwise it’s fairly similar to Ubuntu.

    Also, Kubuntu or Mint are Ubuntu with an UI that is more familiar to someone coming from Windows. They work more or less the same.