Kate Cox
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kcoxdc.bsky.social
Kate Cox
@kcoxdc.bsky.social
8.9K followers 310 following 2.7K posts
Now: Running Decoder @ The Verge. Earlier: editor/reporter for Protocol, Ars Technica, CQ Roll Call, Consumerist, and Kotaku; decades of other writing strewn across the internet. Boston-born, now DC-dwelling. She/her.
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The prior owner of our house was himself a contractor so on the up side, all the work he did himself, he did in a more or less structurally sound way, but the down side is, he made BAFFLING choices and used worksite leftovers for all of them.
When I went to WDW with my family in September there was a guy in the Tron queue who was wearing the Ray-Bans and kept turning in circles, clearly recording everything, and I was really surprised by the level of revulsion I felt -- even though everyone and their grandma was recording at WDW. Welp.
People are opening up Meta AI Ray Ban glasses and modding out the LED recording light, then selling them on eBay. There is huge interest in disabling this functionality, which means basically you cannot trust anyone wearing these (i'm sure you already weren't)

www.404media.co/how-to-disab...
A $60 Mod to Meta’s Ray-Bans Disables Its Privacy-Protecting Recording Light
Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses usually include an LED that lights up when the user is recording other people. One hobbyist is charging a small fee to disable that light, and has a growing list of customers ar...
www.404media.co
My only strongly held pasta opinion as a child was that smooth pasta, without ridges, is weird and wrong. (Not counting actually fresh-fresh pasta, which is different.)
*shakes head sadly* you try so hard to raise them right
For some reason my children will not eat ziti or penne. Even if I make it on the exact same stove I make spaghetti on, with the exact same sauce and the exact same meatballs. I do not know what is wrong with my children.
Do I know why I have Candide firmly stuck in my head today? No. Is it ever a bad day to have Candide stuck in one's head? Not really. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmc7...
Candide - The best of all possible worlds (Groves/Chenoweth/Allen/Blumenkrantz/LaManna)
YouTube video by arnau884
www.youtube.com
When I do that for people, I feel bad for *them* when the place I recommended is wasting *their* time. Contact embarrassment.
I am now the middle-aged mom who does all the grocery shopping for my 2.4 children etc etc and wow did I notice a year or two ago how the entire supermarket playlist is just straight up my high school and college years. (Found myself humming along with Alanis, last week.)
Yes, the teenager has had those 15 years to think up far more lengthy and complicated means of destruction

(Our house is regularly full of 7th and 8th grade cohort haha, those 13- and 14yos are so smart and so dumb all at once, bless those babies)
I hate the days when I have to know what cloud providers host all the different services I need to be able to do my job
The OTHER question we get asked every single week is: "Why aren't you on YouTube?"

Well GUESS WHAT!

www.youtube.com/@decoderpod
He is playing Minecraft. And also being a cuckoo clock.
Local schools are closed today and it only took until 9:15 before the 7yo just literally started shouting "CUCKOO, CUCKOO, I'M A CUCKOO CLOCK" from the couch so we sure are gonna have A Day around here
I was explaining the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to a California friend yesterday, and she gushed about the Huntington back at me, and I was like: yeah, if you're gonna be that rich, at least endow an obscenely huge art collection for public viewing
I am so very sorry for your loss. Peace and love to you and your family.
Aha! This is the kind of thing I was wondering if I might learn tonight. Thank you! That's really interesting!
You're in NYC, give that a catchy name and sell them for $12 each.
oh man, the sci-fi / spec fic shelf is almost exactly all the editions I had or have, too. I *know* those spines.
lol, I have both a 12yo and a 7yo in the house and I feel like we need to split the difference, this is peak fourth grade behavior
Somehow it makes more sense to me in a country that also has a large francophone population hehe
Yeah but it *didn't* slip into a whole lot of other formerly British Englishes as the default. IDK, I think languages and language migration are endlessly fascinating (and deeply weird), and this is a funky lil' quirk haha, thank you for sharing it
...okay, how did that particular piece of french slip into NZ english? fascinating!
At least the theme park ride is actually very good, lol. Even if I did have to explain "what is Tron and why is the ride this way" to my 12yo.

(But I also had to teach her "what is Aerosmith" for that coaster, so.)
lol, are you visiting my fair -- deeply weird, half shut-down -- city this week? At least today's weather is October perfect.