The benefits of a free and open Internet is something that the millennial generation created long ago to make this world a better place and full of opportunities for everyone, not just those who can afford access to it. These benefits are something that makers of quora platform themselves used in the form of open source software like Python, Django, HTML, etc. to build that very platform in the first place.

But now, by denying those benefits to others and bringing in a paywall, quora is striking on its own proverbial roots. There are much better ways to reward their content creators than holding their answers hostage with a paywall. The plain old advertising revenue sharing model can be still used, just like Adsense does. This is a win-win thing where everyone gains including the platform, content-creator and advertiser.

It's extremely important to oppose this paywall move by quora because this attacks the very foundation of the free and open Internet as we know it. Imagine what happens tomorrow if other informative sites like StackOverflow, Wikipedia, etc. start following quora's path. Imagine the plight of the poor and under-privileged sections of the society who cannot afford costly subscription to information. And yet, as members of the evolved human race of 2023, they very much deserve access to this information.

I urge all netizens who consider themselves part of this free and open culture tribe to sign this petition and through it, convey our grievance to quora and let them know why this is wrong and what is at stake (our freedom).

If you agree with my cause, I urge you to sign this change.org petition created in this regard requesting Quora to revert the Paywall move.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

I'm a full stack dev and my current use of JavaScript language is limited to making the best (read trivial) use of jquery for DOM manipulation in my web apps which primarily use PHP or Python (Flask/Django) as backend.

Now, have you watched that popular thriller movie called Inception which is based on a radical sci-fi concept that an idea or thought can be implanted into someone remotely?

Just like that, I often find myself facing this strange idea that JavaScript is supposed to be just a toy running inside the web browser. No idea where exactly this idea came from! Each time I try to learn JS or think of getting deeper with things like npm, react, etc., this idea just pops up and kinda stops me from doing anything!

Is there any way to get rid of this idea somehow?

This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

This thread is posted weekly on Thursday - please try to post relevant content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Especially significant updates may warrant a separate topic, but most should be posted here.

If you'd like to help support Ukraine, please visit the official site at https://help.gov.ua/ - an official portal for those who want to provide humanitarian or financial assistance to people of Ukraine, businesses or the government at the times of resistance against the Russian aggression.

By Reddit user Vapourtrails89. I wanted to share this exceptionally clear explanation of the mechanisms of blood sugar and diabetes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/112yj0o/why_are_high_glycemic_index_foods_such_as_simple/

The higher the glycemic index, the faster the carbs are broken down into sugar and absorbed into the blood stream. Simple carbs absorb quickly, which means that your blood glucose level will rapidly increase. This causes the pancreas to release insulin so that cells will absorb the glucose out of the blood, to prevent hyperosmolarity (the blood becoming too sugary and sticky).

The insulin release will cause your blood sugar to crash, and be stored in the cells as glycogen. This has a dual effect. It will mean you get hungry again quickly, as your brain senses the low blood sugar and sends hunger signals, and you will likely crave simple carbs as you will have learnt to associate these with a quick rise in blood sugar, which in turn produces a reward signal in the brain. This leads to a cycle of eating simple carbs, getting hungry quickly, and over eating. Excess glucose in the blood can be converted to adipose tissue, which leads to obesity.

The cells start to reach their limits for glucose storage in the form of glycogen. At this point they start to resist the insulin signal. This is known as insulin resistance. The exact mechanism for insulin resistance is not known. It seems that the more excess adipose tissue you have, the more insulin resistance you will have. It makes sense as if you have excess adipose, your cells will likely be storing as much glycogen as they can, so they are unable to respond to the insulin signal by taking up more.

When your insulin cannot bring your blood sugar under control, you have diabetes.

Diabetes can either be a failure of insulin production (type 1) or a failure of cells to respond to insulin (type 2)

So I'm on a movie kick after realising I haven't paid attention to movies for a number of years now. I may have seen less than 10 movies last year.

One thing I miss from when I was growing up is when a trip to the cinema always started with a short followed by the main film.

So here's my pr(e/o)mise:

Recommend me your favourite short movies (from any director / year / genre) and I will do my best to track down and watch it (by fair means or foul!)

Also let me know the best way to follow up - add a comment in this thread, make a new post or just shut up (I won't be offended).

I thought it might be interesting to compare notes and ideas.

I know it's a technical question but I want to know specifically from freelancer perspective. A freelancer's decision making differs from that of regular corporate worker in this regard due to many reasons:

1. Freedom to choose: Unlike corporate, a freelancer isn't imposed any process or specific software guidelines to follow. They're free to use Linux and open source if they want to.
2. No team compatibility: A freelancer can work on specific project with a geographically distant team but they don't have to submit to any long-term compatibility constraints.
3. Budget constraints: A freelancer can't typically afford costly licenses. With corporate, they can scale well and bring down the licensing costs which isn't true for freelancers. Hence, open source software is typically more suited to their workflow (even when using a Windows OS).

Given all these factors, do you think a Windows or Linux laptop is more suited for a typical Freelancer? What do you happen to use?