Got it! What channel would you prefer instead? Would Telegram/WhatsApp/Signal/iMessage be good?
The platform itself doesn't need Slack to function, we just observed that users got more value if they could get notifications somehow, so I'm more than happy to add more comms platforms :)
Plaid is criticized because it’s a public-facing mechanism for third-party access into your finances, but many companies already have access without you knowing. In the US, many banks share nonpublic info such as transactions with retailers, marketers, government agencies, and others. They’re allowed to do so under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Report from the GOA:
The article doesn't really get into the details. Does it analyze the user agent and compare it to a list of known bot user agents? What about all the bots that spoof user agent values – does it do something special to detect those?
Yes exactly — it matches against a database of 18
known AI bot user agent tokens (GPTBot, ClaudeBot,
CCBot, Bytespider etc.) plus their known IP ranges
where available. GPTBot for example publishes its
IP ranges officially so we can match on both UA
and IP.
The spoofing problem is the hard one. Bots that
fully spoof Chrome headers are invisible to any
UA-based tool including this one. The honest answer
is that BotCost catches the "polite" bots that
identify themselves — which covers the major AI
companies (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta) since
they all self-identify. The truly malicious scrapers
that spoof identities are a harder problem requiring
behavioral analysis.
So it's accurate for what it is — catching known
AI training and search crawlers — but not a complete
bot detection solution.
It must have been so fun to be Benjamin Franklin. He installed an electric bell in-line on his first lightning rods so that this increase in electrical potential would cause the bell to ring, signaling that the danger for lightning was increased.
You can experience this voltage potential firsthand: take a friend to a hill or somewhere where high‑voltage power lines are nearer to the ground. One person, wearing rubber-soled shoes, stands tall with an arm in the air. The other squats down with both hands on the ground. The standing person uses the non-raised hand to gently touch the sensitive skin of the other person (ear lobe, lips), and they can feel an electric arc.
If you can make up an inconsequential arbitrary rationalization to not use a service then I’m sure you can do the opposite to convince yourself to use it.
That’s what virtue signaling is I guess - the action you’re taking is pointless, the only point is to tell everyone you’re taking it therefore feed the narrative forward?
The entire economy runs off gas turbines though this is the thing you boycott?
Obviously I’m virtue signaling, and I hope instilling a feeling of shame in people who support businesses that contribute to climate change.
But more than that, the emissions generated by the Colossus data centers are far worse than typical combined-cycle gas plants or data centers that buy renewable: these turbines emit NOx, fine particulates, carbon monoxide, and formaldehyde into a population-dense area.
Deciding not to spend money with a company you don't like is not pointless. The point is that you're not participating in something that you judge to be wrong.
The world is full of things I feel are wrong yet have near zero power to stop. That does not mean I should willingly support those things.
You realize natural gas is one of the more environmentally friendly methods of generating power. Lots of work went into moving to natural gas generation to improve the environmental impact for electricity generation.
While the burning of methane is cleaner, the extraction of methane is a massive source of uncontrolled pollution emissions which is made worse by the fact that methane is 20x worse for greenhouse effect than CO2. Clean methane is another green washing myth to encourage people to keep consuming at much as possible
as other have mentioned tons of portable generators are no where near as safe as power plants and these are built right next to people's homes with no oversight or regulation.
Most municipalities ban nat gas in new construction because it’s so unhealthy and unsafe compared to an induction or resistive electric range. No, it doesn’t boil water faster than electric either.
Do you know how much it affects your deep sleep duration?
People who drink caffeine at night may claim to be able to sleep still, but they will find that deep sleep stages are shorter, which is significant because it may be the most important type of sleep.
