No Stupid Questions

I don’t know, my friend says it’s whimpering. Took the music out of the episode to figure it out

I remember a couple of years ago I read up about the details on how QR codes are created. Specifically the masks that are added at the end to ensure that there aren't any areas with too much whitespace or something that ends up inadvertently looking like the corner of a QR code (that square inside a square thing).

And for some reason, I'm staring at two QR codes in front of me, looking at the details, one looks like it contains a pipe going around a corner, another looks like it has a bit of a star, which made me wonder... Why have I never seen a QR Code with a swastika or something else you really don't want to have on there? I've never seen any word on filtering out stuff like that when it comes to masking.

Am I just too bored out of my mind so that I'm staring at QR Codes like this with way too much imagination or is there something I'm missing?

EDIT: I'm sure it's possible to intentionally create one, I'm thinking more of accidentally creating one. Specifically when I see, for instance, a different QR code on the back of every seat in a train, for instance - you're generating so many, no human is going to check that.

I'm hoping I just missed something.

When the vampires first show up there is this big deal about them needing to be invited in. We see it with the first vampire guy, and then they made a big deal about it with Cornbread.

Sometime later, when the vampires suddenly decide they are done fooling around and invade the juke joint to try killing everyone, why are they able to do it with no invitation? Did I somehow miss that someone accidentally invited them in?

I just watched it last night for the first time and this was the only thing that kind of bugged me about it.

Avocado. I heard much about these fruits/berries/whatever. But I am a poor guy from a very poor and totally non-tropical country. So apples and carrots are the sweetest things around and apples become too expensive too.

Still I bought a few. Just out of curiosity. It tastes like... butter block. Internet says that it should be this way. So... Why people eat it? Maybe it is bad alone and\or raw, but after some preparation it is delicious?

Am I missing something?

I'm trying to circulate air in my house. We have a split level home (lower, middle, upper, in a zig zag sort or arrangement. I hate it, but that's beside the point) and the lowest level is always too cold and highest level too warm. I want to move air from the lower level to at least the middle level.

I need a fan, preferably small or thin profile that blows 90° from intake. Ideally a box fan that has a horizontal intake but exhausts up or sideways. What I've done in previous years is have a rotated fan that pointed up, intake from below, and was raised off the ground.

The closest I've found is a carpet dryer drum style. It has round intakes on the side and a rectangular vent on the front. That would totally work (point the intake at the cold room and the exhaust up towards the middle room) but it's way over powered for my situation. Also, it's a bit wider than ideal, though slimmer than what I used last year.

Yes i understand how when the British colonized India and got those exotic spices and the Indians who immigrated to the UK, opened up lots of restaurants there. But still, in my 1st trip to the UK last year, I saw more Indian dishes than Chinese. Heck, even in a Chinese restaurant, we have the option to add some curry sauce on the side. And for the fish and chip shops, you can even have curry sauce to go with the chips and fish.

Is this a culinary thing, i.e. curries are easier to cook? My friend is Indian and although the curries look easy to make, gathering the correct ingredients is very tricky. Missing one and your dish doesnt turn out well. The UK already had these exotic spices so it is easier to make the dish?

Or is it a regional thing? It is freezing in England and so hot dishes like curries are perfect? Traditional stews are kinda bland so something liquid like curry is better?

So there's this post I saw, and the headline says Meta is now arguing uploading pirated books would be considered fair use.

Is it possible to use someone's use of an argument against them in the future? So for example say in the future, in a different case, Meta argues that someone harmed them in some way by uploading pirated books. Can the other party retort with something akin to "ah but that's not what you said about pirated books three years ago, you only complain if it's unfavorable to you"?

Also I noticed this would be the third post in a row about legal questions. I feel like I'm unintentionally contributing to a pattern/trend here, apologies

Specifically this section:

(d) Applicability to citizenship through naturalization of parent or spouse
Any person who claims United States citizenship through the naturalization of a parent or spouse in whose case there is a revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such parent or spouse to citizenship under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section on the ground that the order and certificate of naturalization were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation shall be deemed to have lost and to lose his citizenship and any right or privilege of citizenship which he may have, now has, or may hereafter acquire under and by virtue of such naturalization of such parent or spouse, regardless of whether such person is residing within or without the United States at the time of the revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such parent or spouse to citizenship. Any person who claims United States citizenship through the naturalization of a parent or spouse in whose case there is a revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such parent or spouse to citizenship and the cancellation of the certificate of naturalization under the provisions of subsection ( c ) of this section, or under the provisions of section 1440 ( c ) of this title on any ground other than that the order and certificate of naturalization were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation, shall be deemed to have lost and to lose his citizenship and any right or privilege of citizenship which would have been enjoyed by such person had there not been a revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such parent or spouse to citizenship and the cancellation of the certificate of naturalization, unless such person is residing in the United States at the time of the revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such parent or spouse to citizenship and the cancellation of the certificate of naturalization.

From: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1451

So I got US Citizenship through my mom when I was under 18...

Does this means if, hypothetically, my mom has "Skeletons in the Closet" that comes to light, I could lose my citizenship?

I've been just non-stop obsessing over the thought of denaturalization... 👀

Can anyone even decode wtf this is supposed to mean? So much legalase I'm confused.

I'm obviously not a lawer, but I'm trying to wrap my head around California AB1043 C. 675. This isn't for legal advice, nor am I Californian, I'm just trying to make sure I understand the law and its implications.

1. Under section 1798.501. (b) 4A, wouldn't this make collection of almost any system information illegal? Like, this seems like it would make something as simple as reading the user's chose theme illegal. I've got to be missing something, right?

2. Since 1798.501. (b) 2A seems to require that developers that receive this age flag treat assume it is true, this would at least apply to CCPA, and California Civil Code, right? If so, wouldn't that mean that even an for an adult who uses this flag, sharing their data is illegal, and they are required to be given access to extra rights, like the right to delete your data?

3. Would 1798.501. (b) 2A also apply to COPPA? I know this is state versus federal law, but are they allowed to, under state law, regard the age value as truthful and under federal law, not?

For reference, I have already told them why the sky has no stars (it's because of camera exposure, the moon surface is very reflective so lower exposure is used to not overexpose the image) and why the flag wasn't drooping down (there was an extending arm in the stand to hold it upright, as a flag drooping down is a sad flag). I have also explained that the videos of the moon landing were upscaled/remastered when they asked why the video quality of the clips were so good.

Currently, their main argument is the fact that the U.S. were able to do the moon landing in the mid 20th century while are experiencing delays for the current moon mission. They argue that, if the moon landing could be done way back then, with modern technology, it should be possible to quickly get back to the moon. They also argue NASA could have just reused the same designs as the Apollo missions if they actually went to the moon.

I have argued that NASA's budget is a fraction of what is used to be, and that the addition of new modern technologies introduces additional parts that could break and thus need to be tested. I have also mentioned that the Soviet Union would immediately call out the US if they faked the moon landing, and that samples of moon rocks were sent to Soviet scientists to study and verify. They insist that the Soviets were scared of what the US would do if they spoke out against a fake moon landing, which I didn't agree with (given they were both nuclear superpowers)

They then argued that it's impossible to tell whether the moon rocks are actually from the moon landing, they could be samples collected by rovers. I responded that no rovers had successfully collected moon rocks at the time, and then they switched to arguing that it's impossible to verify the rocks are from the moon. I followed up by saying there are methods of doing that (through the composition of the rocks and such). They then asked how anybody knows what moon rocks look like if nobody else has been to the moon, and I got kind of stumped. I tried to explain that there are models to how the moon formed, how we know the rocks aren't from Earth, satellites that map out the surface, etc., but they reiterated that no one can "prove" that they were from the moon without going there in the first place.

One interesting thing they also mentioned is that, if the US really did do a moon landing, why the Soviets (during cold war era) or Chinese (in modern era) didn't do what they do best and copied their designs to land on the moon. Given that the US and China are having a new space race with the goal of being the first to establish a lunar base, they argue that China could just copy the Apollo program designs if the US really did do a moon landing.

To summarise, their main points/questions right now are: a) Explain why the US hasn't gone back in so long, and why with modern technology it seems so difficult? (especially given that NASA has been experiencing numerous delays in the Artemis missions, that certainly hasn't given them a good impression...) b) How do you verify moon rocks without having actually been on the moon? How did scientists figure out what a moon rock looks like? c) Why aren't the old Apollo designs being reused for a moon landing? (by either the Americans or the Chinese)

They say that there isn't strong evidence either side (but believes that it is false, saying that "we will see" once someone else lands on the moon)

And what other points can I bring up to definitively say, yes, the moon landing wasn't faked?

edit:

Another thing, they also can't believe that astronauts could bring and ride the little moon buggies. I am also partially interested in how that was achieved to be honest!

or will it stay x86 forever? ig if they switch to arm they could just not make a bios?

Example:

My parents are frugal af and refuse to get a new phone charger and tries to "fix it". I think my mom mentioned it caught on fire (or sparks) once or something like that...

So I was like: "Just get a new one for fucks sakes ... Oh I mean I guess you can keep using it... the house is insured, fire is included in the policy, so I guess it's fine."

Then my mom gets mad because it's "bad luck" to say stuff like this... as if somehow making this joke is gonna have a cause-effect to the house catching on fire... 🤔

Like are they afraid of angering the Gods? Spirits? Wut lmao?

🤦‍♂️

Just one example of many and another off the top of my head

I do remember while there were some cases of teens killing people in the 2000's, they were few and far between, now it's like you got to watch out for teens rather than adults and there's a very potent hazard of being killed by a pack.

What happened? it doesn't seem to be affecting one area of the UK either but most places of the UK at once. what's going on with British teens?

I'm still in the research phase of switching to Linux and don't know if this concern is reasonable. I'm not tech savvy. I'm comfortable in the windows ecosystem and could use the dos prompt fine when they used it. I played with QBasic and C++ when I was younger and have built a few computers but that was a couple decades+ ago.

My concern is dealing with malware. I know that Linux has less issues with malware than Windows but, as I understand it, that's primarily because it has a comparatively small market share. I feel like I'm getting into Linux just as it's getting more popular and that it will get worse if the EU moves away from Microsoft because they will most likely adopt some form of Linux as their new standard. More less tech savvy people like me moving to Linux makes it a juicier target for people who create and use malicious software. It's not a reason to stay with Windows but is it a reasonable concern? Are there sufficient tools for people who don't really know what they're doing to be reasonably secure on Linux and will they keep up if the threat profile expands as Linux picks up more users?

At a certain point of EV adoption, selling gas won’t be a very profitable business, because fewer and fewer cars will need it. But there will still be some cars that need gas, that final, say, 30% of ICE cars that are still on the road. But if all or most gas stations shut down at roughly the same time, because they operate under the same business conditions, then those last few ICE drivers will be pretty out of luck, no?

To be clear, this is not an argument that we shouldn’t electrify and decarbonize as fast as possible. I’m more interested in the logistics of managing that transition. And I’m sure that gas stations are not the only case of this phenomenon.

Let me explain with my current situation. I am 22 F and I currently weigh 305lbs.

I am obese. Morbidly obese.

Even though I have been trying for 5 years at this point to lose the weight on my own. Eat healthier, eat more fruits and veggies, cut out excess sugar, walk more, exercise more, the whole kit and caboodle.

But I still am not losing the weight. I am still very fat. And I am worried that it will cause very serious health problems.

So I talked with my doctor and she told me "We need to get you on a weight loss medication. Let's try Ozempic".

But my insurance told us that they don't think I need the Ozempic so they won't pay for it.

So we tried Wegovy and Mounjaro. But my insurance still rejected our requests.

They're saying because I am young, and I am a diabetic with good numbers, I dont need the weight loss meds and I can just lose the weight naturally.

But ive been trying to and it hasn't been working. So that's why my doctor prescribed me the weight loss med.

Why is this allowed? Why is it that your insurance can deny you a medication, even if your doctor says you need it?

why are phones so locked down unlike pcs and laptops?

Hi, years ago if someone had asked, "Which Linux Distribution has the best Community Support?" I would have answered "Ubuntu", but mainly because my journey took me from openSuse to Ubuntu, with some detours around DamnSmallLinux and Puppy Linux, with Ubuntu being the clear winner in terms of having a friendly, welcoming, and active community.

The main avenues of finding support were #ubuntu on freenode (now https://libera.chat/) and https://ubuntuforums.org/ (now retired). Back then both of these were humming with activity. Today, the activity has severely decreased; people don't seem to be hanging out in these spaces helping each other, with the occasional expert popping in and steering the conversation. They're mostly quiet. There's also discourse.ubuntu.com, which I don't know well, and the Ubuntu Matrix space, which is just an awful buggy experience. Even today, Element took 5 minutes to load, and then hit me with the "this channel is closed, the conversation continues elsewhere" which didn't work when I clicked it. Not like IRC at all.

All this to say, I don't think I can recommend the Ubuntu Community any more, unless it truly is the best option and I'm doing it wrong somehow. I am open to that possibility!

The others I've heard of, and the preconceived notions I've heard are:

1. Debian - community geared towards more advanced / knowledgeable users
2. Arch - community geared towards more advanced / knowledgeable users
3. Linux Mint - less active than Ubuntu
4. Fedora - corporate Red Hat?

Could anybody help me out here to find a Linux Distribution where you can talk to actual helpful humans and solve a problem together if you get stuck?

I'm familiar with the absolute basics of networking, but very little surrounding wifi.

I'm current using the modem-router-AP provided by my ISP, along with a couple repeaters. This isn't working well, and in areas of my house further away from my main AP, packet loss is often around 20% - near unusable. How should I improve this?

I can run some wires (within reason), and have multiple spare routers-APs to work with. I can also buy something new off the shelf if needed, but don't want to spend more than I have to. What would be the approach I should use? Like, is there a particular type of extender I should be using, or can I use multiple routers as a mesh or something?

I'm also writing a character who may have this super tired expression so yeah...

I cook at home because of restaurant prices and tip culture. Driving everywhere sucks. Everything feels miles away so good luck walking.