The transition

[Chargeride]

In fairness, one thing I thing the G is trying to do is to make SMS messaging somewhat less insecure and unreliable. The problem is that nearly all 2FA systems we use every day depend on SMS and SMS is also notoriously easy for fraudsters to spoof. Since we commonly use 2FA for banking and confidential medical information that is a bit of a problem.

Bonus points if you know what 2FA is.

I have 2fa on my account, but everytime I go near the settings it announces I dont have it and need to setup a number.
I log in and out and it starts the 2fa process and reminds I dont have it while Im there.
I think I can set up another account called fuzx you google.
Or delete google messages and download a messaging app off the play store written by Dave from Lithuania.

We are just allowing this.
We are allowing the beasts to keep the keys to consciousness.

One ring to rule them all.
4 billion where given to men and they enslaved their bearers

 

[LandoftheGiants]

There are many private blogs and other websites that offer up the 3-choices only for access. Sign in with Google or Apple or the third, I just move on. I'll not get a digital ID, that's the road to enslavement alright, I don't even like the verification email hoop you have to go through now to access eBay, I used to pop in there every second day or so but when I see that roadblock I just close the page. I'll jump through if I really need something but I make no more frivolous purchases. No doubt a good thing!

I was 30 when I got my first computer, 35yo when I first went online, back in the late 1990's so I know how to live without the internet. It keeps getting harder and harder to work with, I guess eventually I'll just give up on the web all together and go into town and start a bicycle club, like in the 'old' days. I'd have to start one though because all the existing bicycle clubs are racerBoi clubs and I'd look like a freak amidst all the multi-colored Lycra and mirrored sunglass. Used to be a man could go up a dirt road to escape them, but since they put on knobbly tires and flared the drop-bars they are up there too

I really feel sorry for them, they have been sucked into a marketing vortex they can't escape now. No going back to a practical $1500 aluminium pushbike after you have been an aspiring Olympian on a $5000 carbon bike with the Ultegra groupset upgrade. The motorists hate them though, and have been known to run them over, or pull in front of a pack and slam on the breaks. Most seem unaware that when they run the tour de france they close the roads to all other vehicular traffic

Then there are these, interesting men...
Gone are the days of just grabbing your wallet and keys and heading off to the pub I guess.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

... The motorists hate them though, and have been known to run them over, or pull in front of a pack and slam on the breaks. Most seem unaware that when they run the tour de france they close the roads to all other vehicular traffic

I have to wonder at how broken someone has to be inside to think it is okay or funny to grievously harm (or perhaps even murder) someone who is inconveniencing them. Morally and intellectually it makes as much sense as shooting someone at a self-checkout in Wal Mart because they are taking too long.

 

[mschwett]

I have to wonder at how broken someone has to be inside to think it is okay or funny to grievously harm (or perhaps even murder) someone who is inconveniencing them. Morally and intellectually it makes as much sense as shooting someone at a self-checkout in Wal Mart because they are taking too long.

arguably less, since cyclists have a right to be on the road in most cases, and i’m not sure anyone has a legal right to the check out line at walmart.

it’s all part of the same spectrum of behavior exhibited above - make fun of people for their clothing (in most cases highly functional) choices, belittle or disenfranchise those who are “other” than you, then discriminate against them and cause them harm of one sort or another.

also very easy for insecure, cowardly narcissists to play at behind the screen, but unfortunately increasingly so in real life too.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

The rise in hatred of cyclists seems enormous and part of this left-right culture war. Why cycling has been dragged into it beggars belief. Most cyclists already own cars for a start. Here in U.K. far right politicians seem to hate cycling. As if it threatens them somehow?

My niece, in Uni in Plymouth & as a student has an old battered bike to commute with, but zero other interest in bikes, not wearing cycling clothes or anything, she got spat at by a motorist last week! Not because of a traffic incident, he just pulled up and spat at her. It's just fucking crazy behaviour.

 

[Chargeride]

I actually find motorist behaviour is the best its ever been, 99% of drivers give wide berth passes.
Sometimes theyre too polite and it becomes painful as they hold back for miles, I quite often pull over to stop a 50 car hold up developing.
Stick a mock camera on your helmet.
The fear of recorded consequence is the new chivalry

 

[stompandgo]

The hatred for road cyclists in lycra goes way back. It was there when I started road riding in the early 80's in New England. In my opinion, what really amped this up was the taking of driving lanes in and around heavily populated cities and dedicating them to "bike lanes". It's the "build it and they will come" fallacy. New England is not China, India, or Pakistan, where bicycles of all types equal or outnumber cars. Bike lanes screwed up traffic, deliveries, hired vehicles, and pedestrian traffic. There were not enough bikes to justify increasing the motor vehicle traffic, and the lanes became clogged with obstacles to the point that every block or two the rider had to enter the motor vehicle lane. The frustration on both sides just exploded. Add social media, and it became normalized, rationalized by motor vehicle owners who pay "road taxes" and feel that the road is theirs and theirs alone. Multi use paths, fully protected from motor vehicle traffic (except reckless e-bikes and scooters) is a great solution, but they are not the interstate highway system. Out here on the sandbar, the b*tching continues as the rail trail is extended, with construction viewed as "too expensive" when roads need work. They want it both ways. Now, the reckless e-bike and scooter riders have upped the hostility even higher. I don't see an end to it.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

None of that would make a normal functioning adult want to hurt other people.

It seems to me that if you think it is okay to harm others because they are inconveniencing you that is a pretty clear sign you should not be allowed to drive a motor vehicle under any circumstances. And probably not allowed to handle kitchen knives or scissors either.

 

[jabberwocky]

The hatred for road cyclists in lycra goes way back. It was there when I started road riding in the early 80's in New England. In my opinion, what really amped this up was the taking of driving lanes in and around heavily populated cities and dedicating them to "bike lanes". It's the "build it and they will come" fallacy. New England is not China, India, or Pakistan, where bicycles of all types equal or outnumber cars. Bike lanes screwed up traffic, deliveries, hired vehicles, and pedestrian traffic. There were not enough bikes to justify increasing the motor vehicle traffic, and the lanes became clogged with obstacles to the point that every block or two the rider had to enter the motor vehicle lane. The frustration on both sides just exploded. Add social media, and it became normalized, rationalized by motor vehicle owners who pay "road taxes" and feel that the road is theirs and theirs alone. Multi use paths, fully protected from motor vehicle traffic (except reckless e-bikes and scooters) is a great solution, but they are not the interstate highway system. Out here on the sandbar, the b*tching continues as the rail trail is extended, with construction viewed as "too expensive" when roads need work. They want it both ways. Now, the reckless e-bike and scooter riders have upped the hostility even higher. I don't see an end to it.

Dunno, where I live there are very few bike lanes even today (and there were basically none when I started road riding in 2005) and the hostility has always been there. I think its historically just that people are self centered and see cyclists as inconveniencing them on "their" roads. Its taken on the same cultural war that a lot of other stuff has over the past 15 years or so which has amped it up and probably fed into what you're saying. Even where bike lanes don't take anything away from existing roads or are constructed as part of a road widening, people still complain about them.

I traded my 10 y.o. Silverado in with 120k and original brakes; that's not terrible.

Depends how you drive I suppose, I just replaced the front brakes (entire system) in my 13 year old F150 at about 50k. Cost about $1,400. Rears need to be done as well before our next safety inspection. Just traded our Explorer in a month ago at 115k and I think it was on its second set of pads but was very close to needing the third.

My brother tracks costs with both his cars and the Rivian is pretty consistently 1/3-1/2 the maintenance/running cost as his Bronco. It depends on whether hes road tripping or just using it at home. Fast charging on road trips is not far off the cost of gas for the Bronco (at least before the current world idiocy skyrocketed the price of gas). Slow charging at home is about half the cost per mile as the Bronco. But there is so little ongoing maintenance for the EV that it really pulls ahead. Not just brakes, but all the belts and fluids and such that you do at intervals in a gas car are unneeded in an EV. I think the only ongoing thing you need in the first 100k in the Rivian is tire rotations.

 

[Roamers]

where I live there are very few bike lanes even today (and there were basically none when I started road riding in 2005) and the hostility has always been there.

It's interesting reading about the hostility towards bike riders. I have never witnessed it; I've never seen "the lycra gang" acting like they own the road. Typically very respectful of blocking traffic and bike lanes are non-existant around here; they are starting to add bike lanes in town, but I've never seen a bike in them.

Many years ago I road the roads all the time and never felt threatened; must be because I wore biking shorts with a cotton t-shirt rather than jersey.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Specific 'road tax' in the U.K. was abolished in the 1930s, it's now part of general taxation & local council tax that everybody pays including cyclists. Plus around 85% of adult cyclists own cars. Plus, and the lack of understanding of this always gets me, the better the bike infrastructure the more people cycle and the less people drive, meaning fewer cars, so less traffic jams and better for drivers. They always miss that bit in their blind anger at cyclists.

 

[RunForTheHills]

95% of the population in the US see bicycles as recreation and not transportation even if most people own a bicycle. It's a cultural thing and it's been that way for the last 100 years. I remember during the 70's gas crisis, my dad trying different ways to get to work. He tried cycling, but it was 20 miles each way and he couldn't do it every day. He bought a Vespa scooter, but didn't feel safe on it. He ended up buying a Volkswagon diesel pickup, which was so gutless it took 3 minutes to get up to freeway speed after getting on the onramp. He traded in his BMW 2002 tii for the pickup, which he regretted for years afterwards.

 

[indianajo]

My brother tracks costs with both his cars and the Rivian is pretty consistently 1/3-1/2 the maintenance/running cost as his Bronco. It depends on whether hes road tripping or just using it at home. Fast charging on road trips is not far off the cost of gas for the Bronco (at least before the current world idiocy skyrocketed the price of gas). Slow charging at home is about half the cost per mile as the Bronco. But there is so little ongoing maintenance for the EV that it really pulls ahead. Not just brakes, but all the belts and fluids and such that you do at intervals in a gas car are unneeded in an EV. I think the only ongoing thing you need in the first 100k in the Rivian is tire rotations.

I have never seen a Rivian p/u. I have never seen an ad for a Rivian on TV. I have never seen a news story about a Rivian. When I was driven off the bicycle by my heart, which went from 250 w to 50 w in one surgery, I looked for a Ford Lightning. Not available in stock. Bought a 20 mpg F150. I guess I am supposed to live in California and pay 50% of my SSI in taxes, to make the transition.