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Laziness through technology

posted by PMYA on Whatever

Nothing makes me happier than being able to not do something. This is probably a driving force behind the popularity of certain websites and forms of technology. I would argue, for example, that the aggregator website was born from laziness. The convenience of having a wide range of subjects not just thrust in front of you, but sorted for you, is digital laziness. RSS feeds are similar. I'm a fan of both.

Recently, I discovered a couple of ways to not do things that almost made me feel bad for doing them. A couple of weeks ago I left my phone downstairs when I went to bed, but I wanted to check my account balance. It would have taken me about a minute to go and get it and call the number that tells you your balance. Instead, I decided to log into my provider's site and get it from there, but it said I needed to know a number on my SIM card to be able to find my balance. I remembered that your balance can be found on their app, but unfortunately, it is a mobile app and you can't use it on a computer. Undeterred, I downloaded an Android ISO, booted a VM, and installed the app to look at my balance. It took 20 minutes longer than walking downstairs, but I didn't have to move an inch.

Similarly, I have found a way to walk my dog without moving. Instead of going through all the trouble of putting his harness on (bastard slips out of his collar), standing up and walking, there is a way to do this without leaving the house. I charged my drone today and flew it around the back garden at a height my dog couldn't reach it, but was still willing to chase it. I did this until the battery started flashing low power, charged it again, and then flew it around some more. As a fortunate result of the way my house was built, I was able to do this from the safety of my kitchen, looking out into the back garden.

I am now utterly convinced that /s/Technolazy needs to exist, but I have reached my sub limit.

Nothing makes me happier than being able to not do something. This is probably a driving force behind the popularity of certain websites and forms of technology. I would argue, for example, that the aggregator website was born from laziness. The convenience of having a wide range of subjects not just thrust in front of you, but sorted for you, is digital laziness. RSS feeds are similar. I'm a fan of both. Recently, I discovered a couple of ways to not do things that almost made me feel bad for doing them. A couple of weeks ago I left my phone downstairs when I went to bed, but I wanted to check my account balance. It would have taken me about a minute to go and get it and call the number that tells you your balance. Instead, I decided to log into my provider's site and get it from there, but it said I needed to know a number on my SIM card to be able to find my balance. I remembered that your balance can be found on their app, but unfortunately, it is a mobile app and you can't use it on a computer. Undeterred, I downloaded an Android ISO, booted a VM, and installed the app to look at my balance. It took 20 minutes longer than walking downstairs, but I didn't have to move an inch. Similarly, I have found a way to walk my dog without moving. Instead of going through all the trouble of putting his harness on (bastard slips out of his collar), standing up and _walking_, there is a way to do this without leaving the house. I charged my drone today and flew it around the back garden at a height my dog couldn't reach it, but was still willing to chase it. I did this until the battery started flashing low power, charged it again, and then flew it around some more. As a fortunate result of the way my house was built, I was able to do this from the safety of my kitchen, looking out into the back garden. I am now utterly convinced that /s/Technolazy needs to exist, but I have reached my sub limit.

13 comments

[–] PMYA [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

Yes.

All my shit is set up in Chrome and I'm not switching to anything else. If I'm using a VM, I use Midori because it is lightweight and doesn't rape my potato. Occasionally I need to use Firefox for certain things, but I hate it.

[–] smallpond 2 points (+2|-0)

I assume everything that works in Chrome also works in Chromium. Google are way, way too creepy for me not to put up some resistance.

I trust yandex mail more than gmail.

[–] PMYA [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

The annoying part about the extension is you need to turn developer mode on to install your own extensions. So if the browser clearly knows that you are making your own extensions, and it knows you are loading the extension from a file on the same computer, why does it need to warn you?

I had to make a gmail account for something recently and the amount of info you need to give them is disturbing. Check out cock.li, I started using it a few months ago.