Not everything needs to be profitable.

I didn't write "nothing needs to be profitable".

I live under a system where even very expensive treatments are covered by the state using taxpayer money, and I'm not starving. Sometimes you need to optimize for human dignity.

Heroin consumption isn't legalized here, it is decriminalized.

Also, it was MUCH worse when it was a crime.

A few years ago a client of mine gave me a big-ish APC UPS. I recently got new batteries for it after the outage here in Portugal, and to turn on SSH I had to agree that I was not a terrorist organisation's nor in a country where encryption can not be exported to.

I'm glad it had that. If you were, say, a member of ISIS and used the UPS, they'd be able to successfully sue you for breach.

> I had to agree that I was not a terrorist organisation's nor in a country where encryption can not be exported to.

Don't forget when flying to the USA, ticking the box to say you won't try to overthrow the government.

I'm sure that clause has stopped many an invading army in their tracks.

It is compression, but it is lossy. Just like the digital counterparts like mp3 and jpeg, in some cases the final message can contain all the information you need.

But what’s getting reproduced in your head when you read what I’ve written isn’t what’s in my head at all. You have your own entire context, associations, and language.

Sort of unrelated, but I've been thinking a lot of founding a non-profit that fund raises just to undercut the usual shitty consultancy companies that build government websites and apps just to build them properly.

In Portugal we also have Soup and Salad :)

But, tragically, no hash browns. :(

Honestly, in a purely technical sense, I do find it beautiful how you can take matrix multiplication and a shit-ton of data, and get a program that can talk to you, solve problems, and generate believable speech and imagery.

There are many complications arising from such a thing existing, and from what was needed to bring it into existence (and at the cost of whom), I'll never deny that. I just can't comprehend how someone can find the technical aspects repulsive in isolation.

It feels a lot like trying to convince someone that nuclear weapons are bad by defending that splitting an atom is akin to banging a rock against a coconut to split it in two.

Cool site, thanks! By the way, the "Before" and "After" buttons are swapped.

Enormous child mortality, colonial war, persecution by the political police, hunger.

As far as I am aware, USD is used for larger amounts in such countries. Smaller purchases are made in the local currency.